Florida senator Marco Rubio said in an interview Tuesday that he intends to support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the November election despite the fact that he still believes Trump should not have access to the United States’ nuclear weapons launch codes.
“I signed a pledge that said I’d support the Republican nominee and I intend to continue to do that,” Rubio told CNN’s Jake Tapper. But, Tapper asked, what about Rubio’s statement that we shouldn’t hand the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic con man?
Rubio said that he stands by his remarks but still intends to back Trump anyway as the GOP nominee.
“I know what I said during the campaign. I have enunciated those things repeatedly, and voters chose a different direction. I stand by the things that I said,” Rubio told Tapper. “But I’m not going to sit here now and become his chief critic over the next six months.”
Pressed again about how he could reconcile his support for Trump with his remarks that Trump shouldn’t get access to the nuclear codes, Rubio said that Republican voters had spoken. “That said, it doesn’t change what I said in the past. I stand by those things,” Rubio added. “But now he is the presumptive nominee. I don’t want Hillary Clinton to win.”
Rubio was rather emphatic just weeks ago that Donald Trump was so unfit to serve as commander in chief that he could not be trusted with access to America’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
On February 26, Rubio said in reference to Trump that we should not hand the “the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual.”
“There is a lunatic in North Korea with nuclear weapons,” Rubio said again at a campaign event on February 27. “And some would say there’s a lunatic trying to get ahold of nuclear weapons in America.”
“One thing you did say about Donald Trump is that he is a con artist who should not get access to nuclear codes,” Greta Van Susteren said to Rubio in an interview on February 29. “You really believe that?”
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Rubio replied. “He is dangerous. He has dangerous views about the world.” Rubio cited Trump’s admiration of Putin and the Chinese government, his sharing quotes from Mussolini, and his refusal to condemn David Duke and the KKK days before several Southern states held primaries.
On March 12, after Trump had encouraged violence against non-violent protesters, Rubio was asked if he could support Trump in November if Trump were the GOP nominee. “I don’t know,” Rubio replied. “It’s getting harder every day.”
Today, Rubio said that he wasn’t backing away from any of his remarks about Trump. But Rubio argued that—because he signed the RNC pledge and because he doesn’t want Hillary Clinton to win—he must support a man so unfit for office he can’t be trusted with access to the nuclear football.
What does Rubio’s logic say about his own fitness for the highest office in the land? Nothing good.
