Jesse Scheckner
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has largely expressed faith in America’s electoral system, but recent comments he’s made — and declined to make — indicate he might be thinking of adopting rhetoric similar to that of former President Donald Trump if things go poorly for Republicans this November.
Rubio, Florida’s senior U.S. Senator, is facing his stiffest test in years in Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings. Polling shows the two candidates are in a statistical tie.
When asked Sunday by the Washington Post if he’d accept the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, Rubio joined 11 other GOP candidates — including Gov. Ron DeSantis — declining to answer the question. All Democrats said they would accept the election results.
Nearly two years after the 2020 election, there has been no evidence to support claims of widespread voter fraud.
Rubio has generally supported and voiced confidence in United States elections. But he’s periodically flirted with adopting a more outlying approach. Shortly after the 2020 presidential race was called for Joe Biden, Rubio said on Twitter, “Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud (and) court challenges to votes cast after the legal voting deadline is not suppression.”
As pressure mounted, however, he echoed messaging from the Trump campaign undermining voter confidence, telling Fox News that “half this country” doubted the veracity of the election.
Rubio nonetheless was one of just a few Republicans from Florida to certify the results on Jan. 6. But then a month later, he bashed a congressional hearing into the riot at the U.S. Capitol that disrupted its certification as a “complete partisan scam.”
More recently, he’s argued it’s the “Marxist misfits” and “laptop liberals” on the Left who “cannot tolerate dissent” from the Right. In a keynote speech last week at the National Conservatism Convention in Aventura, he said Democrats, not Republicans, are the ones who have trouble accepting unfavorable election results.
“They have to control government,” he said. “Which means that, ‘Yes, we’re for elections as long as we win. If we lose, we lost because you suppressed the vote, because the laws of some states didn’t allow people to vote and if they had voted, the outcome would be different.’
“That’s what we’re looking through right now. And some people say, ‘Oh, you’re just paranoid because you’ve been raised your whole life around people who lost their country to Marxism.’ Yeah, maybe. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
According to Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Grant Fox, Rubio will buckle under pressure from his party to side with election deniers this fall.
“Floridians deserve to know that their leaders will respect their votes, not try to overturn them or cast doubt on elections if they don’t get what they want,” Fox said in a statement.
“Marco Rubio doesn’t have the courage to stand up to the extremists in his party and defend the basic foundations of our democracy. Selfishly undermining the legitimacy of our elections so he can score points with his party bosses is not only a shameful new low for Rubio, it’s dangerous.”
18 comments
tom palmer
September 19, 2022 at 8:56 pm
That’s another reason to reconsider re-electing him
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Elliott Offen
September 19, 2022 at 9:19 pm
They create phoney election police, poll watchers, recounts…still don’t trust elections in their own mostly red states? Hmmm. Looks like it’s THEM who wants to commit fraud if they aren’t elected. Soon enough they’ll start getting locked up for it as well if they continue down that path. People aren’t going to stand for these charlatans… authoritarian mad men.
Ron DeSantis Sucks
September 19, 2022 at 9:38 pm
Rubio is a coward. Sad I voted for him in the 2016 primaries.
Gary
September 19, 2022 at 10:34 pm
You suck faggot
Jay Smif
September 19, 2022 at 10:59 pm
This isn’t the place for your gay fantasies, gary.
Mr. Haney
September 20, 2022 at 9:48 am
You got it.
PeterH
September 19, 2022 at 11:26 pm
Unbelievable!
Vote All Republicans out of office!
Bill
September 20, 2022 at 7:56 am
I’m sure little marco will accept the results if he wins. It’s only the sore losers who seem to complain.
Charlie Crist
September 20, 2022 at 9:44 am
Republicans are the election thieves… ain’t that right Pizzarelli???
Mr. Haney
September 20, 2022 at 9:47 am
Just more Republican cowardice.
If Rubio or any other Republican can’t accept election results they should not be running for office. They are not entitled to any elected position.
Scott
September 20, 2022 at 12:32 pm
Clearly, Rubio doesn’t believe he was re-elected last time. Perhaps he should immediately resign.
Or
He, like JD Vance, has to get into the submissive position and kiss Trump’s behind.
tjb
September 20, 2022 at 1:42 pm
Half of the country thinks there has been election fraud because Trump, Fox News,, OAN, and folks such as Rubio, are perpetuating this falsehood.
How many legal challenges to this have the Republicans lost or the case has been tossed out of the courts because there was no evidence of fraud?
Virtually every challenge!.
tjb
September 20, 2022 at 1:54 pm
If the Democrats committed election fraud, why didn’t more Democrats win?
Ocean Joe
September 20, 2022 at 3:23 pm
As Liz Cheney said:
“There will come a day when Mr. Trump is gone,
but your dishonor will remain.”
In Marco’s case, Trump is still here, he has dishonored himself repeatedly by groveling for Trump’s approval, and by denying our electoral system he demonstrates he is exactly like all those banana republican dictators he always complains about.
Marco, 12 years was enough. You’ve gone from being a slippery flip flopper to a MAGA weasel.
Valentine Mayer
September 20, 2022 at 4:33 pm
“Tolerate dissent?” That is sum total of what has come from Rubio, and his co-conspirators since the Criminal-in-Chief took the 2016 election, by conspiring with Russia: only dissent. No meaningful legislation, only hijacking the Supreme Court.
All of this will change: the midterms will finally expose the sweeping dissatisfaction with Republican dissent: continue to threaten our Democracy, Marco, and you and all the rest will be decertified as a Political Party.
Watch.
Rocco
September 20, 2022 at 11:17 pm
You know him. Ladies last your choice! If you think this guy tells you what he already told you Is his agenda? Vote accordingly
Beth Watson
September 21, 2022 at 8:57 am
Only if you want to be TOTALLY ruled by the current communist regime. Open your eyes Charlie Crist is a joke. We don’t need his communism in Florida
When are we going to stop with the Russian collusion stuff. It’s been proven by a court of law that it was made up by the Democrats to sway an election.
Comments are closed.