Rubio compares Capitol riot, BLM
Senator comes under fire for video comments
U. S. Sen. Marco Rubio released a video Friday comparing the attack on the Capitol by a pro- Trump mob with Black Lives Matter protests, saying the unprecedented assault was similar to what the left had been “justifying” this past summer in cities across America.
“The events that we saw this week should sicken every single one of us ... Riots should be rejected by everyone, every single time,” Rubio said. “Now, are the left hypocrites? Absolutely. I remember what they now are calling ‘ insurrection,’ they were justifying just last summer.”
The protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May were held nationwide for weeks, with further protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha in August. Some did result in rioting and property damage, but most, including those in Orlando, were generally peaceful.
Rubio also called the media, particularly CNN and MSNBC, “outrageously biased … 100%,” saying that was a reason “why so many Americans have sought
political shelter in divisive political movements and conspiracy theories that offer them the promise of fighting back against it.”
Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D - Orlando, slammed the senator’s remarks.
“Protesting is not the same as staging a coup,” Eskamani said. “I have been
to many protests; I have been protested at. It is not the same as what happened this week in the U. S. Capitol. And to even attempt to make a comparison is sick.”
The video comes as Rubio has already gotten flak from Democrats for calling out a nameless “some” who have misled supporters of President Trump to believe base
less claims of fraud. Yet, he also tweeted, “Millions of Americans had doubts about the election.”
Besides a direct appeal to Trump amid the chaos to send help to Capitol Hill, Rubio also has not directly addressed Trump’s culpability in inciting the attack.
“What he’s trying to do is position himself so that he
comes out against violence, but still pointing out the Republican or right- wing grievances that maybe led to it,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. “And probably all of this with an eye towards his own re- election coming up [ in 2022] and then potentially another presidential run in four years.”
But, Jewett added, despite avoiding direct criticism of Trump, “certainly there’ll be some Trump Republicans who would wonder about Rubio’s loyalty to Trump.”
Rubio had said in 2016, for example, that the country shouldn’t give “the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual” such as Trump.
That statement was unwittingly echoed Friday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she spoke to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”
Rubio spokesman Nick Iacovella denied that Rubio was trying to make an equivalency between the Capitol attack and BLM protests.
But Eskamani said the remarks attempt to “paint the picture that everyone is to blame, which takes off the pressure from President Trump and other Republicans who stood next to Trump. ... Now, all of a sudden it’s everyone’s fault, and we all have a role to play. No. The responsibility lies on the shoulders of President Trump and his enablers, and Sen. Marco Rubio is absolutely a Trump enabler.”