In the News
Marco Rubio Condemned For Attacking Bipartisan Investigations Into The January 6 Rioters
Marco Rubio’s recent interview on Face The Nation was a complete disaster. Unable to answer basic questions about where he stands on issues surrounding the January 6 attack, Rubio denounced the bipartisan committee investigating the rioters who violently stormed the Capitol and attacked police officers in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Rubio’s interview was such a train wreck that previous Republican supporters of his had to distance themselves from him after it aired.
See what others had to say below:
“Look, I don’t know what’s happened to Marco. When he ran in 2016 I was a Jeb supporter and went to Marco after Jeb because I look and I go ‘Marco is talking about a strong America.’ He was kind of this representative of this next generation of potentially Republicans, and he’s just – he’s gone all in now on this kind of big lie.”
Greg Sargent: “This from Marco Rubio is a particularly wretched display of bad faith”
Vanity Fair: Marco Rubio’s Mouth Refuses To Form The Words “Trump Was Wrong”
- Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, the Florida lawmaker was asked point-blank by Margaret Brennan, “Do you agree with Mike Pence [that Trump was wrong to claim the vice president has the power to overturn presidential elections]?” To which Rubio responded: “If President Trump runs for reelection I believe he would defeat Joe Biden, and I don’t want Kamala Harris to have the power as vice president to overturn that election. And that’s the same thing that I concluded back in January of 2021.” While not wanting to give Harris the power to decide the outcome of the next election is probably a legitimate concern for Republicans, the key part of the question was left unanswered. So Brennan tried again.
- “So Donald Trump was wrong?” she wondered. “Well, as I said I just don’t think the vice president has that power because if the vice president has that power, Donald Trump would defeat Joe Biden in four years, or two years and then Kamala Harris can decide not to overturn the election. I don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio said.
- Normal people understand that you can’t believe the vice president doesn’t have the power to overturn the election while simultaneously not believing Trump was wrong, but in Rubio’s warped brain, it’s perfectly reasonable to pretend that both things can be true. That probably has something to do with him being a longtime political hack, which would also explain his comments elsewhere in the interview.
The Bulwark: Will Saletan: “What a little, little man he’s turned out to be”
- “Marco Rubio, I mean, what an incredible shrinking man. It’s really remarkable to think that there was a time when he was on the cover of Time Magazine as the savior of the Republican Party. And what a little, little man he’s turned out to be.”
- “And then he goes on to say that the January 6 committee is just a total scam and everything, so he’s certainly not going to be one of the guys who’s going to stand up for what’s right.”
Rolling Stone: Florida Man Who Called Trump a ‘Con Artist’ Now Smears Jan. 6 Committee as a ‘Scam’
- Republican Sen. Marco Rubio refused to say former President Donald Trump was wrong to press then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election, and he later called the Jan. 6 committee “a partisan scam.” During an appearance Sunday on Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked Rubio if he agreed with Pence’s recent comments that Trump was “wrong” to push him to reject electors from certain battleground states.
- “Does the RNC speak for you when it says that this is a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse. Was Jan. 6 legitimate political discourse?” Brennan asked.
- Rubio went on to call the panel “nothing but a partisan tool designed to go out and smear and attack and get their hands on as many people as they can.” (Again, two Republicans sit on this allegedly “partisan” committee.)
- During an appearance on CBS News’ Face The Nation, Rubio was asked whether he shared the RNC’s majority sentiment.
- The Florida Republican recalled an account of a recently widowed RNC member who supposedly is ‘being harassed by this commission’ despite not being in Washington, DC on January 6.
- ‘But that’s not what the censure said,’ Brennan insisted. Rubio pressed ahead. ‘This commission is nothing but a partisan tool designed to go out and smear and attack and get their hands on as many people as they can, including people that weren’t in Washington on January 6th,’ he claimed.
- The CBS anchor attempted to settle the matter before moving on to a different topic, telling him: ‘OK, sounds like you say they do speak for you.’
Talking Points Memo: Rubio Avoids Condemning Trump’s Pressure Campaign Aimed At Pence
- In an interview on CBS on Sunday, Rubio dodged the question of whether he agrees with Pence’s remarks. Without a hint of irony, Rubio attempted to paint Vice President Kamala Harris as someone who would commit election fraud if Trump were to run for re-election in 2024 and win.
- Asked whether Trump was wrong to claim that Pence could’ve overturned the results, Rubio didn’t address Trump’s unsuccessful pressure campaign to get Pence to do so, but instead pivoted to bashing Harris again.
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