By all accounts, Sen. Marco Rubio is a finalist for his party’s vice presidential nomination, and with this in mind, the Florida Republican has been an eager participant in the GOP’s “race to the bottom.” It was against this backdrop that the senator sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash, who asked about the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
In a move that likely pleased viewers at Mar-a-Lago, Rubio largely ignored the question and toed a partisan line. From the “State of the Union” transcript:
When Donald Trump was president, I can’t think of a single prominent Democrat who was chased around, persecuted, prosecuted. It’s funny to me to read these people and hear these people out there warning about all the horrible things they ridiculously claim Donald Trump is going to do if he becomes president again. They’re the ones that have been going after their political opponents.
The Republican senator added moments later that Trump, in a second term, wouldn’t target his perceived political foes. “His vengeance is going to be by winning and making America great again, not going after his political opponents,” Rubio said.
So, a few things.
First, if the senator or his allies have any evidence of White House officials “going after their political opponents,” Republicans have kept the proof well hidden.
Second, the idea that Trump has no interest in vengeful, retaliatory tactics is belied by Trump repeatedly expressing explicit interest in vengeful, retaliatory tactics. Indeed, the question of whether or not the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would try to prosecute his perceived political enemies in a second term has already been answered by the former president himself many times: As regular readers know, Trump has publicly acknowledged his intentions in multiple interviews. Perhaps Rubio missed them.
But of particular interest in the CNN interview was Rubio’s suggestion that Democratic fears of abuses are absurd. Look at that quote again: “It’s funny to me to read these people and hear these people out there warning about all the horrible things they ridiculously claim Donald Trump is going to do if he becomes president again.”
The trouble is, Rubio doesn’t seem to recall Trump’s actual presidency. The former president’s critics aren’t just raising concerns about his future plans, they’re making accusations based on Trump’s unambiguous record.
As we’ve discussed, the former president spent much of his White House tenure trying to transform Justice Department prosecutors into his own personal attack dogs. The New York Times reported in 2022 that Trump and his team “tried to turn the nation’s law enforcement apparatus into an instrument of political power” to carry out the Republican’s wishes. A Washington Post analysis published soon after highlighted the many instances in which Trump not only leaned on the Justice Department to follow his whims, but also his efforts to push federal law enforcement to validate the “big lie” in the wake of his election defeat.
The Republican’s weaponization efforts reached a truly amazing pinnacle less than a month before Election Day 2020, when Trump publicly called on federal prosecutors to go after Joe Biden — at the time, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee who was leading the Republican incumbent in the polls — and accused him of undefined crimes. The then-president added that his future successor shouldn’t be “allowed” to run against him.
On Oct. 7, 2020, with early voting underway across much of the country, Politico published an especially memorable headline: “‘Where are all of the arrests?’: Trump demands Barr lock up his foes.” The next day, the Republican incumbent spoke with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo and called on the Justice Department to “indict” his perceived Democratic foes — including Biden. After Trump’s 2020 defeat, his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, said the former president “regularly” wanted to use the Justice Department to retaliate against critics. To date, Rubio never expressed a word of criticism about any of this, and now the senator appears to have forgotten recent history altogether. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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