Apparently, Senator Marco Rubio is one of the finalists for his party’s vice presidential nomination, and with that in mind, the Florida Republican was an eager participant in the Republican Party’s “race to the bottom.” It was in this context that the senator spoke with CNN’s Dana Bash, who asked about the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
In a move that likely pleased spectators at Mar-a-Lago, Rubio largely ignored the issue and followed a partisan line. From the “State of the Union” transcription:
The Republican senator added moments later that Trump, in a second term, would not target his supposed political enemies. “[H]That revenge will be to win and make America great again, not to go after your political opponents,” Rubio said.
So, a few things.
First, if the senator or his allies have any evidence that White House officials “go after their political opponents,” the Republicans have kept the evidence well hidden.
Second, the idea that Trump has no interest in vindictive and retaliatory tactics is contradicted by Trump, who has repeatedly expressed an explicit interest in vindictive and retaliatory tactics. In fact, the question of whether or not the presumptive Republican nominee would attempt to prosecute his alleged political enemies in a second term has already been answered several times by the former president himself: As regular readers to knowTrump has publicly recognized from him intentions in multiple interviews. Maybe Rubio missed them.
But of particular interest in the CNN interview was Rubio’s suggestion that Democratic fears of abuse are absurd. Look at that quote again: “It’s funny to me to read these people and hear these people warning about all the horrible things they ridiculously claim Donald Trump will do if he becomes president again.”
The problem is that Rubio doesn’t seem to remember Trump’s current presidency. Critics of the former president are not only raising concerns about his future plans, but also making accusations based on Trump’s unequivocal record.
Like us discussed, the former president spent much of his tenure in the White House trying to turn Justice Department prosecutors into his personal attack dogs. The New York Times reported in 2022, that Trump and his team “tried to transform the country’s law enforcement apparatus into an instrument of political power” to carry out the Republican’s wishes. A Washington Post analysis published shortly afterwards highlighted the many instances in which Trump not only leaned on the Department of Justice follow your whims, but also your efforts to push federal law enforcement to validate the “Big Lie” after his electoral defeat.
Republican arms efforts reached a truly astonishing apex less than a month before Election Day 2020, when Trump publicly called on federal prosecutors to go after Joe Biden — at the time, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party who was leading the Republican incumbent in the polls — accusing him of undefined crimes. The then president added that his future successor should not be “allowed” to perform against him.
On October 7, 2020, with early voting underway across much of the country, Politico published an especially memorable title: “‘Where are all the prisons?’: Trump demands Barr lock up his enemies.”
The next day, the Republican incumbent spoke with Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business and called the Justice Department to “indict” their perceived Democratic enemies – including Biden.
Following his 2020 defeat, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, said the former president “regularly” wanted to use the Department of Justice to retaliate against critics.
To date, Rubio has never expressed a word of criticism about any of this, and now the senator appears to have completely forgotten about recent history.
This post updates our related previous coverage.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
