A.G. Gancarski
Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday said Russian leader Vladimir Putin likely would be removed from office were he an American President, given how the Ukraine invasion has gone.
“It’s just gone poorly. I mean, if he were an American President right now, he’d be impeached,” Rubio said. “At least they’d be invoking all kinds of constitutional provisions to get rid of him.”
The Senator also said Putin’s “risk calculus is different” than it might have been in the past, but that he’s not necessarily “insane.”
“I don’t think he’s, like, the way we would describe as insane in the normal sense. I think this is a guy who feels he’s got everything to gain at this point. Losing a war would oust him from power, which is something he can never allow to happen,” Rubio said.
Rubio did not offer specific insights about Putin’s health — such as things Rubio may be privy to in briefings — which was the initial question posed to him by Fox & Friends interviewers. Many have speculated whether Putin is sick.
“I haven’t been told anything I can share with you other than some pretty obvious observations. I mean, the guy’s older, right?”
Rubio suggested part of the reason for Putin looking ill may be Russian underperformance in the Ukraine invasion.
The Senator also said the war isn’t “going well” and that Putin “knows the truth about it.”
“The reality of it is they’ve probably lost more soldiers. They’ve probably lost two times as many soldiers already than they lost in Afghanistan, the entire time during the Afghanistan invasion (as) the Soviet Union,” Rubio said. “Probably degraded their military forces 20-30%. They’ve had high failure rates.”
Rubio’s estimation of Putin’s mental acuity has declined since the Ukraine invasion. In 2021, the Senator fretted that Putin worked to “muscle” President Joe Biden at a bilateral summit between the two leaders.
“This is a trained ideological operative, a psychological operative, I should say. He’s a trained intelligence officer,” Rubio said. He contrasted Putin with Biden, who Rubio doubted had “full control over his presidency” at that point.
3 comments
Lynda
April 27, 2022 at 9:36 am
Re: Marco Rubio’s comment that putin would be impeached in the US.
Rubio forgets that the lock-step refusal of most republicans to look at and vote to convict trump would be true of the putin cult in Russia too. In fact, if for some reason putin were put on trial in the US, many republicans seem to go along with trump’s opinion that putin is the type of leader they want so the outcome would be not enough republicans voting to convict putin.
Sad, very sad the trum-pest cult has damaged the Republican party in the name of power to themselves.
November can’t get here soon enough
April 27, 2022 at 10:28 am
The American version of Putin was impeached – twice. And neither time did Rubio vote to convict. Fortunately he’s got less than a year before he’s replaced by Val Demings.
PeterH
April 27, 2022 at 10:52 am
Incredulous that our weak unpopular do-nothing Senator Marco Rubio would make such a statement on the day that his co-senator Rand Paul once again attacked US foreign policy in Ukraine!
Folks ….. today’s Republican Party is devoid of the very basic attachment to conservative principles! Vote these clowns out of office until they can learn how to be mature thinking representatives.
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