Marco Rubio slams ‘send her back’ chant, but calls Squad ‘political bullies’

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Florida senator calls media hypocrites in online video.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio criticized a controversial from President Donald Trump about four Congresswomen, all people of color. But the Florida Senator also slammed the House members themselves “political bullies.”

In a nearly two-minute diatribe posted by Rubio on social media, he called media out for applying different standards.

“The hypocrisy, the self-righteousness, outrages people too,” Rubio said.

The message comes as controversy continues about a tweet from Donald Trump slamming four Democratic Representatives: U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came,” Trump tweeted on July 14.

The remarks were widely considered to be directed at the four freshmen progressives, sometimes called “The Squad.”

The controversy seemed further fueled when a rally of “Send Her Back” broke out when Trump invoked Omar at a rally Wednesday.

Rubio in a tweet addressed recent uproar.

But the bulk of his video message went after the Democratic members.

He alluded specifically to controversial remarks by Omar earlier this year.

“One of their [Democrats’] members of Congress from their party says support for Israel is all about the Benjamins, and they couldn’t even pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism by itself,” Rubio said.

The fact Congress elected to expand a resolution to condemn other forms of bigotry like Islamophobia rankled many at the time, including Jewish members like Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat.

Rubio noted that before the Trump feud erupted, the big story in political media had been the Squad members internal fighting with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

“Nobody should question that they are fully as American as me or anybody else,” said Rubio, himself the child of Cuban immigrants. “But they’re also political bullies.

“They go around attacking people, calling other Democrats just like Southern Segregationists. But when you hit them back, it’s because they are women of color.”

Critiquing identity politics as a whole, he said media should apply the same scrutiny on both sides of divisive rhetoric.

“They hold a press conference saying there shouldn’t be talking and dividing people on the basis of race or ethnicity, but they go on to say, by the way, if you disagree with us, you’re a white nationalist and you’re a racist,” Rubio said.

“It’s absurd. People are tired of this game.”

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].


2 comments

  • Pedro

    July 19, 2019 at 1:16 am

    Rubio thinks who is a political bully? It could be that he has been ignoring Trump completely the last for years or so, it would make sense we all know why. Or maybe Rubio is being his lame political self as usual!

  • DumpTrump2020

    July 19, 2019 at 10:58 am

    Yeah, they’re “political bullies” – just like the guys that threw the tea off the ships in Boston Harbor! Ppfftt to you, Rubio!

Comments are closed.


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