In the coming weeks and months, there will be ample speculation about Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, with familiar names auditioning, receiving scrutiny, sharing information with the former president’s vetting team, and probably even making pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago.
At least for now, as NBC News reported, one of Trump’s home-state senators is under serious consideration.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is moving up the list of former President Donald Trump’s potential vice presidential picks, according to six people familiar with the presumptive Republican nominee’s search for a running mate. … “It’s pretty clear from Trump’s orbit that Rubio is in play,” said a veteran Florida GOP operative.
On the surface, it’s easy to see why the GOP senator would make the short list. Rubio clearly has national ambitions, as evidenced by his own 2016 presidential candidacy, and adding him to this year’s Republican ticket would likely give Trump a boost with Latino voters who might otherwise be repulsed by Trump’s record and racism.
What’s more, the lawmaker is apparently open to the idea. “Anybody who would be offered the chance to serve their country as vice president should consider that to be an honor,” Rubio told NBC News this morning. “I mean, that’s why I’m in public service.” He added, however, that he hasn’t spoken to anyone on Team Trump about the possibility.
But if the senator is a real contender for his party’s vice presidential nomination, it’s worth keeping some relevant details in mind that might not be immediately obvious.
For example, when Rubio and Trump were rivals, the senators insisted that the future president was a “con man” and a “con artist” — assessments have become even more accurate over time. Rubio also told audiences that Trump might urinate on himself, which was around the time that the GOP lawmaker made vulgar jokes about Trump’s genitals.
In June 2016, Rubio told voters that Trump was so “dangerous” that he couldn’t be trusted with nuclear secrets. (This also proved prescient when Trump brought classified nuclear secrets to his glorified country club and refused to give them back.)
After the 2016 election, Rubio ultimately became chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and oversaw the panel when it investigated the connections between the Trump campaign and its Russian benefactors. The Rubio-led investigation ultimately uncovered, among other things, a “direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services.”
After the 2020 election, when Trump was pressing GOP lawmakers to reject certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory, Rubio was among the Republicans who ignored Trump’s pleas. The moment Trump were to add Rubio to his ticket, all of this becomes front-page news again. Would the former president take the risk anyway? I’m skeptical, but he’s certainly made plenty of irrational decisions before. Postscript: Before you reach out to remind me about the Constitution prohibiting presidential and vice presidential candidates from the same state, I’m aware of the question, but the consensus among scholars tends to be that this is, in fact, allowed.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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