Marco Rubio says he will cooperate with Joe Biden, depending on how the President-elect ‘behaves’

Marco Rubio. Image via AP.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Thursday laid some ground rules for how he might receive nominees and policy moves from the incoming Joe Biden administration.

The Senator, appearing on “Fox and Friends,” contended that while he wasn’t devoted to obstructionism for the sake of obstructing, he reserves the right to oppose moves that run counter to his political philosophy.

In response to a New York Times report from Thomas Friedman saying that Biden wondered how Republicans would behave once Donald Trump is out of the White House, Rubio said the real issue is how “Biden behaves.”

“Is he going to sort of fall in line with the radicals in the Democratic Party that are already insisting right out of the gate that we’re going to do the clean, Green New Deal and all this other stuff or is he going to try to get things done that both sides can agree on? So a lot of it depends on what he seeks to prioritize and what he wants to do.”

“Look,” Rubio added, “I’m not just going to be against stuff because Joe Biden’s for it. If it’s something I’m for and he’s for, my job is to do what’s best for the country.”

“But we have to understand that a lot of things he’s for I’m going to be against,” the Senator continued.

Rubio noted that “people on the far left” will “try to push Biden in that direction,” and he’s “not going to be for any of that stuff.”

“I’ve never told anybody I’m a liberal Democrat,” Rubio said. “He’s surrounded by people on his side of the aisle, the first thing they do is criticize Israel.”

The Senator then described a “widely reported” event where Rep. Rashida Tlaib and a couple of other members of Congress he couldn’t name were cozying up to supporters of Hamas, but blanked when asked to recall specifics.

Then, he said there was “no reporting whatsoever” about the “attendance at this radical event,” before saying there was “some reporting but not in the widespread media.” The segment ended without further clarification.

While Biden likely doesn’t subscribe to positions held by the extreme left in the House himself, Rubio worries that “elements in the Democratic Party” will “have a voice” and steer policy.

The Senator has spent much of the post-election period setting parameters for engagement with the incoming Biden administration, predicting a “tough slog” in the currently Republican-controlled Senate for some nominees that are too far left.