Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) insisted on Sunday that Donald Trump would not try to prosecute his political opponents if he wins the election—despite Trump promising to do just that.
Rubio complained on State of the Union that Trump’s criminal cases—one of which he was recently convicted for by a jury of his peers—were part of a political persecution orchestrated by Joe Biden and Democrats. He tried to claim that Trump’s sole “vengence” would be to restore the U.S. to Trumpian times, ignoring Trump’s past remarks to the contrary.
“He was president for four years,” Rubio said. “He didn’t go after Hillary Clinton, he didn’t go after Joe Biden, he didn’t go after Barack Obama, he didn’t go after any of their consultants.”
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The reported VP hopeful also vowed to moderator Dana Bash that, should Trump return to the White House in January, the former president still wouldn’t seek revenge on those figures.
“He’s already said that he wouldn’t do that,” Rubio said, referencing last month’s presidential debate. “He’ll be too busy undoing all the damage of this disastrous presidency.”
Rubio’s lofty vision for a second Trump term—one he’d evidently like to be a part of—doesn’t quite square with reality. While Trump did say his “retribution” will be a second electoral win, he told Glenn Beck last year that he’d have “no choice” but to go after his political enemies.
“The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us,” Trump said.
He returned to such musings last month, telling Newsmax that he restrained himself from prosecuting Hillary Clinton during his first term but that he’d “have to view it very much differently.”
“Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife and the former secretary of state—think of it, the former secretary of state, but the president’s wife, into jail. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing? But they want to do it,” he said. “So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”
