Marco Rubio says protesters had it coming for breaking curfew
Image via Getty.

Key Speakers At The Conservative Political Action Conference

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio continued his running commentary on the latest crisis in the Republic, saying protesters knew curfew was at 7 p.m. in Washington so they should have been off the street.

“They knew the street needed to be cleared before 7pm curfew,” the Senate Intelligence Chairman said about protesters scrapping with paramilitary police within spitting distance of the White House.

Rubio also said media members “fell for the calculated & deliberate tactics of professional agitators,” who “deliberately stayed to trigger police action & get the story they wanted, that ‘police attacked peaceful protesters.’”

The Senator also chided CNN for “blaming the police while ignoring several obvious things.”

“The overwhelming majority of agitators are not African Americans … many wearing gas masks or googles … they know exactly how to provoke police.”

CNN commentary, at least on Monday night, was exclusively critical of the President, without even the obligatory surrogate defending his position. Commentators said things like “this is not America,” lambasted the President’s “all-white coterie,” and predicted a landslide loss for the President’s reelection effort.

Cable news may have focused the Senator’s ire, but he has spent the last few days attempting to paint a complex portrayal of protesters, including antifa allies on the left and “ethnic nationalists” on the right.

“I guess the violence from organized bands of young white men, dressed in all black, with helmets, gas masks, knee pads, shields & hammers isn’t enough to be at least a little suspicious,” Rubio asked earlier Monday.

The Senator offered another depiction of these usurpers earlier in the day: “Loosely organized groups who hate the police & want a 2nd Civil War is also real During the last week some are on private social media chats calling for attacks against police They are described as “far-right”. But they are really anti-govt/anti-American insurrectionists.”

The Second Civil War motif is one Rubio established over the weekend in previous commentary.

“These people are violent, domestic extremists,” Rubio said. “and they range from Antifa groups who are radical to the left to some other groups, radical to the right. In fact, groups that I would argue don’t even belong on the political spectrum as we know it.”

“And their goal, while they are ideologically opposed to each other … they hate the police, they hate the government, and they want this country to fall apart … some of them want a Second Civil War.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


8 comments

  • Frankie M.

    June 2, 2020 at 12:05 am

    I wonder how Marco would have described the Unabomber, Oklahoma bombers, or Waco? I wish we had some sort of hot tub time machine to find out. Were they leftist extremists like Antifa or individuals concerned about government overreach? I guess it all depends on who is sitting in the Oval Office? I prefer Rick Scott’s rather naive approach. Distract the populace with nationalist propaganda i.e. blame Chiner to distract from their working class struggles.

    • lumdor

      June 2, 2020 at 1:05 am

      I wonder if one day, ‘Little Marco’ will realize that being a Republican Stooge is detrimental to his being re-elected?
      Time will tell!

    • Arl

      June 2, 2020 at 9:01 am

      Rick Scott is mini-Trump and he will try to run for the top office. BEWARE, this man took the 5th Amendments over 70 times when his health care company was under investigation.

  • Arl

    June 2, 2020 at 9:03 am

    Gwen, How do you like Fascism?

  • PeterH

    June 2, 2020 at 11:26 am

    Democrats gave Republicans a chance to rid America of this pox in the White House. They blew it. ANY silence from Republicans on the economic mess and the pandemic they’ve allowed to fester or the daily rioting… should be interpreted as complicit behavior!

    These Republican self-centered apologist whine about ‘socialism’ …. but this is just a 1950’s ‘red scare’ attempt at altering the 2020 election outcome.

    We live in a socialist society where Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment insurance are safety nets. We’re the only western country on planet earth that doesn’t provide a National Health Care plan ….. although Trump promised one …… didn’t he?Trump also promised that Mexico would pay for a border wall and that the national debt would magically disappear. In three and a half years of Trump failed leadership our national debt has ballooned by $10 trillion, the deficit is out of control, our allies laugh at us, 104,000 Americans have thus far died from a virus that Dr. Trump insanely suggested a malaria drug would cure ….. let’s not forget Trump’s 20% unemployment…..and on and on. The Trump administration has no remedy for anything BECAUSE THEY ARE INCOMPETENT. Really Gwen, do you really think Americans want four more years of this stink?

  • Glenn Reihing

    June 2, 2020 at 2:24 pm

    So let’s unpack this…

    “…media members “fell for the calculated & deliberate tactics of professional agitators,” who “deliberately stayed to trigger police action & get the story they wanted, that ‘police attacked peaceful protesters.’”

    The demonstrators were on their knees when police attacked. When they tried to get away, they found that every potential access point to escape was blocked by police. Not to mention that tear gas was used on demonstrators BEFORE the curfew started.

    “Loosely organized groups who hate the police & want a 2nd Civil War is also real During the last week some are on private social media chats calling for attacks against police They are described as “far-right”. But they are really anti-govt/anti-American insurrectionists.”

    This is Marco acting like he did with Venezuela. Trying to whip up sentiment to attack these “terrorists” as opposed to calling out the fact that too many people, both white and black, have had enough of watching police brutality go unchecked. Too many people are sick of hearing half-hearted sound bites that “We’re going to do something about it.”

    They heard it with Eric Gardner….nothing.
    They heard it with Trayvon Martin…nothing.
    They heard it with PHILANDO CASTILE..nothing.
    And the list goes on…and on… and on…

    I, as a white man, am tired of hearing it because the police have not changed their tactics despite the overwhelming evidence of their brutality.

    I am tired of hearing it because despite their rhetoric their brutality is institutionalized by their superiors so they are free to act with impunity and with no consequences.

    I am tired of tone-deaf politicians that when this finally does come to a head and boils over into massive protest, they try to switch the conversation over to protect white interests rather than own up to their failure to stem the institutionalized racism that is prevalent in our system.

    I say… “Let it burn” because you, Sen. Rubio, were one of the enablers.

Comments are closed.


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