Marco Rubio says ‘corporate media’ sold COVID-19 relief bill

Marco Rubio. Image via AP.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio took to the Fox News Channel Wednesday, contending that a Republican failure to stop or appreciably influence the American Rescue Act can be blamed on media “narrative,” including the use of the phrase “relief bill” to describe it.

The $1.9 trillion bill, passed by the Senate and poised to be passed by the House Wednesday, was facilitated by the story that corporate press wanted to tell, Rubio said.

“Let me just say that when you call something the COVID relief bill, as you see by and large in the hands of corporate media increasingly consolidated in the hands of a handful of entities, they cover narratives. The narrative they wanted to cover is this is a really good bill, this is going to help people and change planet earth, pull people out of poverty for at least twelve months,” Rubio asserted.

“Anybody who is against it doesn’t care about working Americans, doesn’t care about COVID, and struggling people. That’s the narrative they wanted to cover, and they put it out there consistently,” Rubio told hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino.

“By and large, the narrative they wanted to cover is this is called COVID relief,” Rubio said. “The bigger it is, the more people it helps. Why aren’t you for it?”

Rubio’s concerns with the stimulus package are well-documented and unchanging, even as Republicans, in the minority in both houses of Congress, keep taking losses during votes in the Biden era.

“I’m not going to get punked into voting for a bill that helps Pelosi bail out California, that helps Schumer bail out the predator Governor of New York,” Rubio said in a Twitter video ahead of the Senate vote, referring colloquially to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, facing serial accusations of sexual harassment from former staffers and associates.

As Rubio frets again about media unfairness, Democrats are messaging around Rubio’s vote.

The Democratic Senate campaign arm has launched a five-figure YouTube buy, as an early salvo in the 2022 campaign. They will need to hit him hard, as Rubio is polling better than Joe Biden, according to a Mason-Dixon Poll out today.

Rubio’s concerns align with those of Florida’s other leading Republicans. NRSC chairman Sen. Rick Scott thinks people will turn on the “shameful” bill over time, strengthening the cases of Senate candidates nationwide. Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, said the bill was evidence of “bad juju” in Washington.