Just in case you were under the impression that Jeb Bush had grown a spine since the primaries, fear not!
Bush has resurfaced after being humiliated by Donald Trump in the primaries to applaud Trump's choice of a climate change denier to head up his EPA, and not only does he applaud the choice, he says he can't imagine a better one!
In case you're not familiar with Scott Pruitt, he's the Attorney General of Oklahoma, the state that has become ground zero for manmade earthquakes thanks to the fracking industry there, an industry that's desperately hoping to make its way into Florida, which is ground zero for sinkholes. But aside from his fame in Oklahoma and his denial of climate change being a threat, he's also sued the agency he will now run to try and block environmental regulations. This is the thing Jeb Bush is apparently giddy over.
Jeb was always a sellout for big oil, that's a no brainer. But to now cheer on someone who may well sign his home state's death warrant to run the EPA is to add yet another layer of hypocrisy to Jeb's resume.
Of course, Jeb can well afford to move when his own backyard is under water, as can fellow Florida part-time resident Trump, and the millionaires and billionaires who own much of the state's beachfront real estate. But many of the everyday residents of Florida can't.
Still, it's nice of Jeb to insert himself into the line of people now sucking up to Trump (not to mention Putin) and to remind us all he's still just as spineless as he ever was.
That's quite the wager in a sea of wagers the Republican Party seems wiling to make in their post-reality Trump existence.
Unfortunately for them, the polls say they're wrong. Americans very much care about Trump's obvious conflicts of interest as he prepares to enter the (oh, I shudder to write this) White House. Yet the GOP plan to keep playing their "the American people say" game as if saying it will make it so. After all, they've played it for years. Those same Americans who they claim "don't care" that Trump will turn the country into his own personal ATM as he fills his pockets with their tax dollars and pushes policies that serve only to enrich him and his family, also "don't want" health care, clean water and air, nor do they really care to vote, among other things. Oddly, "the American people" just love Republican policies that hurt them. That's why more than two million more of them voted for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump and why Democrats picked up seats in this election.
But I digress.
Getting back to that claim, why on earth would the American people not care about Trump's conflicts of interest? After all, wasn't it in part that he won after perpetuating and running on Hillary Clinton's myriad imaginary conflicts of interest? I believe "Crooked Hillary" was the moniker he used while encouraging chants to "lock her up" at his rallies. In fact, he was still at it last week.
Part of his shtick was falsely claiming the Clinton Foundation, which is actually a charitable foundation, unlike the Trump Foundation, was a scandalous conflict of interest that Hillary Clinton used to enrich herself. It wasn't anything of the sort, but his argument only served to point out that everything he says is projection.
Another argument Trump made (an idea he got from Bernie Sanders, and thanks for that too, Bernie!) was that Hillary Clinton was a puppet of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street because she visited them on the public speaking circuit. According to Bernie and Trump, we were to believe that because she made a speech at Goldman Sachs once, she would be at their beck and call were she to become President. "Drain the swamp!" Trump bleated during his ego booster rallies. Yet we Americans are now told by the Republicans that we really don't care that Trump is filling rather than draining the swamp as he stocks his future Administration with Goldman Sachs and Wall Street executives, some of the very same people who caused the economic crisis in 2008?
“In a pre-Trump world dominated by left-wing ideas, anyone successful is inherently dangerous and should be punished for trying to serve the country.… I’d say to the left wing, get over it.”
More projection from Newt. "Get over it," he says, after he and his party demonized Hillary Clinton for being successful in her political career on behalf of the people who aren't millionaires and billionaires and subsequently lacking a voice in our ever eroding democracy, and who was therefore dangerous, and should be punished for trying to continue to serve her country. But Newton the professional grifter would very much like you to get over the fact that a man whose middle name is "bankruptcy" will be running the country like one of his failing businesses, and that every American will now be tantamount to a Trump University victim.
Last but not least in our chain of hypocrisy, we have GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the man who made Hillary Clinton witch hunts his primary concern both before, and after what he thought would be her election as POTUS. Suddenly, his interest in oversight has evaporated:
Trump has argued he’s not legally required as president to deal with his conflicts, and Chaffetz repeated that assessment. “There are public perceptions that I’m sure they’re keenly aware of,” he said.
Trump’s feet will be held to the fire should his business interests become a problem, Chaffetz promised. But he also argued Democrats were going overboard by flogging an issue that remains in the theoretical.
“It is a little ridiculous to send me six letters before he’s even been sworn in to go on, essentially, fishing trips,” he said. “That’s not what we do.”
Legal requirements aside, there are Constitutional requirements involved, something else Chaffetz and Republicans claimed to hold in high regard, but as Trump prepares to set the Constitution on fire, apparently the Chairman of the Oversight Committee will now simply provide him with the gasoline and matches.
The election is 12 days away but Republicans are already promising years of investigations and blocked nominees if Hillary Clinton wins.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he has lined up enough material from Clinton's four years as secretary of state for two years of probes.
"It's a target-rich environment," Chaffetz told The Washington Post. "Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years' worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good."
Now, let's step back to what Chaffetz said about investigating Trump's conflicts of interest just four days ago:
"I will when there is an allegation of wrongdoing. But he hasn't even been sworn in yet," Chaffetz said Thursday in an interview. "At least let the guy actually become a federal employee before you start screaming for investigations."
Yeah, what's the rush? He's not Hillary Clinton after all! Let's wait until there are actual allegations, says Chaffetz as he closes his eyes and ears to allegations and evidence piling up in newspaper reports, on television, and ignores all of those Americans who actually DO care about Trump's conflicts of interest who are screaming about them as I write this. Oversight? Surely you jest, America!
Listen to Republicans who say you don't care about Trump's conflicts of interest, not to mention his incompetence and unfitness for office?
Just trust Republicans on this, you're not interested in all that. Right?
I hate to write headlines with a question mark lest they be perceived as clickbait, but this isn't clickbait. It's an honest question.
Because in Florida right now, we have a Senate race that's winnable for Democrats where the Republican candidate is the current seat holder who says he hates the job, proves it by rarely showing up, and swore he wouldn't run for it again after voters told him to take a hike in his failed Presidential primary. Now he's back, once again pretending that he won't run for President again, and abandon the job early, again. Sure.
Marco Rubio has never done anything in his political life that doesn't benefit Marco Rubio. His only accomplishment in the Senate (if you can really call it an accomplishment) was an immigration bill that he turned around and voted against. Since he arrived in Washington he's done nothing but obstruct everything President Obama and Democrats tried to do, things that his constituents favored. When he ran the first time in 2010, he said "Perhaps the most stimulative thing they [Congress] can do right now is take a two year recess or something.” That was the closest Rubio ever came to having a "big idea."
So here we have absentee record holder Senator Rubio, one of the worst candidates possible, trying to keep his seat, and his opponent Patrick Murphy is gaining on him in the polls, and tied with him in at least one. This would seem like a win-win scenario for Democrats. Yet the man who professes to want to lead Democrats in the Senate when Harry Reid exits next year has taken it upon himself to withdraw monetary support for Murphy, and essentially hand Floridians something they clearly don't seem to want: Another couple years (?), much less six of Marco Rubio's "representation" in Washington.
That man would be Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
Every big name in the Democratic Party from President Obama to Bill Clinton have stepped up on Murphy's behalf in Florida, yet Schumer apparently refuses to.
There have been quiet whispers about this in Florida for a while now, but not anymore.
On Sunday, The New York Times published an editorial entitled "A Chance To Unseat Marco Rubio." It illustrated the downsides for Rubio in the state right now, among them the growing support for Democrats among Latinos and Rubio's support of Trump:
Just months ago, Senator Marco Rubio was seen by the Republican establishment as one of its best hopes for taking back the White House. Now, Representative Patrick Murphy, a second-term congressman, is within striking distance of defeating Mr. Rubio in the senator’s race to keep his seat.
The race is the most consequential among several in Florida in which Republican incumbents find themselves in unexpectedly tough fights. The plight of Florida Republicans — who seem largely resigned to a Clinton victory, given Hillary Clinton’s four percentage point lead in the polls — is in large measure a result of the name at the top of the ballot. But Donald Trump’s candidacy has only accelerated trends that have changed Florida’s political landscape in ways that Democrats have been more adept at seizing.
...
What this has meant for Mr. Rubio is that he can no longer rely on Cuban-Americans as a stalwart base in a state where many voters have become alienated by his hard-line conservative positions on issues such as gay rights, reproductive rights, gun control and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and by his shifting stance on immigration reform. Of course, the Trump factor is substantial, too. Mr. Rubio, who once called Mr. Trump a “con artist” wholly unfit to be president, now backs him. Many former Rubio supporters find that galling and indefensible.
For these reasons, Florida voters should support Mr. Murphy. But defeating Mr. Rubio, who earned a reputation on Capitol Hill as a disengaged lawmaker who skipped scores of key votes and hearings, shouldn’t be the only motive.
Mr. Murphy’s positions on climate change — an issue that Mr. Rubio seems deeply ignorant about — gay rights, gun control and comprehensive immigration reform make him by far a superior representative for Floridians. Mr. Murphy has also challenged Mr. Rubio’s obstinate support for the failed embargo on Cuba, which puts him on the right side of history and, increasingly, public opinion in Florida.
Earlier this week the subject of Democrats abandoning Murphy came up on Rachel Maddow over at MSNBC, where she discussed the problem with Florida political strategist and former State Director for the Barack Obama campaign, Steve Schale. You can see that discussion in the video here.
Tensions are flaring at the highest rungs of the Democratic Party over its decision to pull out of the Florida Senate race, with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Florida donors pressing to go all out to unseat Marco Rubio in the final days of the campaign, but New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the party’s Senate campaign arm arguing it’s not feasible because of budget constraints.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — under the direction of Schumer and its chairman, Montana Sen. Jon Tester — has redirected millions of dollars from Florida to North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana. They reason that those states are both much cheaper to advertise in and offer a more promising path to the Senate majority than Florida, where Rubio has long been favored to defeat Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy.
But Reid and other Democrats believe that defeating Rubio would be the ultimate Election Day trophy for Democrats, given his national stature and the reelection threat he could post to a potential President Hillary Clinton in 2020.
...
Many Democrats see things the other way. Reid is advocating that the party make an eleventh-hour re-entry into Florida, Democratic sources said. Barack Obama has also taken a keen interest in the race, traveling to Florida to knock Rubio last week. He’ll return Friday to visit Orlando.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has been pleading with former President Bill Clinton to get Democrats more interested in the Florida contest, sources familiar with the matter said. Bill Clinton himself believes Democrats gave up on the race prematurely and is urging Florida donors to support Murphy.
The urgency among many Democrats is heightened by Rubio’s status as a rising star in the Republican Party with unquestioned national ambitions. Many Democrats believe the next few days is the best chance to finish him off.
“I understand it’s not Chuck Schumer’s job to worry about presidential politics,” said Steve Schale, who managed Obama’s 2008 campaign in Florida. But “we’re all going to look a little dumb if Rubio wins by 80,000 votes and announces for president in two years.”
...
“Going forward, we should certainly consider building a big beautiful wall around Florida that the DSCC pays for,” [Florida fundraiser Stephen] Bittel quipped. “Everyone comes to Florida to raise money and we have been incredibly generous for a long time to the DSCC and we are quite disappointed that they have chosen to not repatriate our capital back to Florida to support Patrick Murphy.”
...
“The Clintons have extra incentive to help Patrick,” said one Florida source. “If Rubio loses his reelection after losing his home state to Trump in the presidential primary, he’s done. No one can survive two losses at home in the same year. Don’t you think Hillary would be happy if she knew that Marco was no longer a threat to her in four years?”
Everyone from state Democrats, Democratic voters, Democratic strategists and the biggest Florida Democratic donors recognize the folly of sitting back and letting Rubio win a race that is his to lose, a seat that has long been in the Republican column but now has a chance to flip to the Democrats. Yet Chuck Schumer doesn't see the urgency in handing the seat back to one of the most unpopular Republicans in the Senate? Why?
Here's a possible hint I saw today on twitter:
I don't know if that's true, but if it is, it's stunning. If Chuck Schumer plans to be the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, and is protecting a no-show Republican obstructionist who has everything to gain at the expense of a flipped seat for the Democrats in the Senate, is that Schumer's idea of "leadership?" After all, let's remember that after Donald Trump is gone, Republicans who supported him will jump to try and rewrite history of their support for an unhinged candidate. Worse, Republicans will pretend their party members who were lying to supporters for years as Trump does, and who have created the atmosphere that allowed Trump to rise in the party in the first place will be looking for someone to pretend he's the Republican's "normal choice." Rubio stands to gain from that rewrite. The party already named him their "savior" once before. Does anyone really believe they won't try this again?
In theory, Schumer could transfer more money to the DSCC; he had $20 million in his campaign coffers at the start of October. But he’s currently spending on ads in his own reelection campaign in the pricey New York market and has already transferred more than $6 million into Senate races.
$20 million is a lot of money. Especially when you consider Schumer's Real Clear Politics polling average in his own race is currently +36 against his Republican opponent. Despite the pricey New York market, just how much does Schumer really need to defend himself?
Really, Sen. Schumer? Can't spare a dime for Murphy? Money's "tight" when you've only got a mere $20 million? This revelation is music to Republicans ears, and they thank you for the help! (And yes, they are literally thanking him for it.)
I've been writing about the disaster that is Marco Rubio for a long time, and I've been looking forward to ending my streak. I thought it ended when Rubio lost in his Presidential primary, especially in his home state landslide loss. It was frustrating enough when he flip-flopped to run again, but even I thought surely this next loss would be the end of his career. That frustration wasn't mine alone. There's a virtual club of Democrats here who were giddy at the thought of waving goodbye to Rubio.
So it's beyond frustrating that, of all people, a Democrat from New York may have decided to put his thumb on the scale for Rubio, despite what any Floridian might want, much less what the country might want, four years from now. Worse, that this Democrat may be leading the Senate in the future.
If you're as frustrated as I am, please respectfully ask Sen. Chuck Schumer to change his mind and give Patrick Murphy, and Florida, the help they deserve.
(Note: As I was writing this, it seems the folks over at Daily KOS started their own Schumer-Murphy campaign. This is more welcome news.)
Long before revelations about Donald Trump's views on sexual assault and tales of his presence and behavior at events where illegal drugs and young women were passed around and used, Marco Rubio lost supporters because of his embrace of Trump for plenty of other reasons. One of course being the fact that Donald Trump is Donald Trump. Another was that Rubio became a willing participant on the Trump Train even after Trump humiliated him during the primaries, and yes, defended Trump when it was revealed he violated the Cuba embargo.
Yes, the reasons are many, but perhaps one of the biggest reasons is the fact that Rubio is willing to support the man who kicked off his campaign by saying that Mexicans were drug dealers and rapists, and that one came back to bite Rubio big time over this past weekend.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio got booed off a stage in Orlando on Sunday, by a crowd that was overwhelmingly Latino.
It happened at Calle Orange, a street festival in downtown Orlando geared toward the city's large Puerto Rican community. The icy reception was an indication of the challenges that Rubio, a Republican of Cuban heritage, has faced in locking down support from Latinos in Florida as the state's Latino electorate has begun to shift to the left.
...
But when he took the stage, there was spattering of boos from the crowd.
And when the emcee introduced the senator, they grew louder.
"I'm going to introduce a man who represents Latinos, no matter where you're from," the emcee boomed in Spanish. The boos grew louder still. "Ladies and gentlemen, the senator for the state of Florida, a Latino like you and me ... his name is Marco Rubio! Applaud!"
Instead, the boos rained down on the senator, drowning out what appeared to be a handful of supporters in the crowd.
"Thank you for having me today," Rubio said, also in Spanish. "I want you to enjoy this day. We're not going to talk about politics today. Thank God for this beautiful day, and for our freedom, our democracy, our vote, and our country. God bless you all, thank you very much."
Then he left the stage, to more boos.
Imagine not wanting to talk about politics when your attempt to do just that is drowned out with angry boos? After all, does anyone really believe Rubio woke up Sunday morning and decide to head to the festival in Orlando for anything other than political reasons?
Rubio may have thought this was a good idea, but it backfired on him, adding one more reason to his growing list of bad judgment calls. After all, these same voters have been bleeding away from the Republican Party in Florida for a while now, and this election's early voting among Latinos in Florida is even larger than it was in 2012. Apparently Rubio's magical thinking got the better of him again on this subject, just as it did when he said earlier this week that Trump was doing better in Florida than people realized. Yeah, not so much Rubio. Looks like you're 0 for 2.
"Latinos might have differences amongst each other, but we're also united as one," said Angel Marin, a retired Army sergeant of Puerto Rican descent who said he's voted for both Democrats and Republicans. He said he resented Rubio for his endorsement of Trump.
"And when we have someone like Trump, who hits our Mexican brothers, our Latino brothers, then you jump on that bandwagon after all that stuff he says not only about you personally ... as a Latino, you're a freaking sellout. I would not vote for him if they paid me."
"He's from the party of Trump," Gretchen Valentin, who lives in Orlando, said in Spanish. She characterized her feelings toward Rubio as more distaste than dislike. Valentin moved to Florida from Puerto Rico 15 years ago, but said this election would be her first time voting. "I've never belonged to any political party, but this year, I'm inclined toward the Democrats. The little I've seen of Trump and the Republicans and how hard they've made it for immigrants has left me unconvinced with them."
It seems that Rubio's disguise of politician masking as a really bad used car salesman isn't working for him anymore anywhere. Backing Trump may just be the final straw.
Rubio is currently tied with Democrat Patrick Murphy.
As President Obama is fond of saying: "Don't boo. Vote."
This is hardly "breaking news" to anyone who pays attention, but Marco Rubio thinks voters are stupid. Or at least he hopes they are.
In the first of his debates against his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy earlier this week, Rubio tried to snow voters once again by dancing around the question of whether he would commit to serving a full term if he wins his Senate seat back. You know, the one he swore he wasn't running for again when he flamed out in the presidential primaries.
The audience actually laughed at Rubio's "answer" while he dodged and weaved to try and convince voters he really, REALLY wouldn't run for President again in 2020 and thus abandon the job he rarely shows up for again as he did when he launched his failed 2016 presidential bid. You can see that here in a video posted on a new website by the Florida Democratic Party.
But Rubio didn't end the stupid there. No sir. He had more Trump-like lies to tell, and much like Donald Trump, who Rubio happily supports, Rubio chose one that can easily be fact checked. Worse, (for Rubio, anyway) he chose a lie that's stupid on its face.
"If Congressman Murphy trusts Hillary Clinton 100 percent, he’s in rare company, because not even Tim Kaine is willing to say that," Rubio said, "and he’s her running mate."
That's right, Tim Kaine chose to be Hillary Clinton's running mate because he doesn't trust her. And if you believe that, Rubio would like to sell you some waterfront property in South Florida that can double as a "houseboat" of sorts whenever it rains now, thanks to rising seas and climate change, another thing Rubio plays dumb about.
This little statement earned him a "Pants On Fire" from PolitiFact, (I guess only because they don't yet have a "No Pants" rating) because Tim Kaine has been telling voters how and why he overwhelmingly trusts Hillary Clinton since the day she chose him as her Vice Presidential nominee.
Further, Rubio tried to persuade fact checkers it was true by pointing them to an interview Kaine did recently. In the interview Kaine indeed didn't say he "trusts Hillary Clinton," and there was a good reason why: Because during the interview, no one ever asked him that question.
Once again, the only person Marco Rubio proves time and time again can't be trusted is Marco Rubio.
On Thursday, President Obama came to Florida to rally on behalf of Patrick Murphy, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, and as he toured the state, he delivered a well-deserved, blistering take down of Marco Rubio, his hypocrisy, his endless pandering, and his continued support of Donald Trump.
It was a thing of beauty.
He also delivered a dose of reality on how the Republican Party created Trump, and targeted the danger of Trump's rhetoric, his talk of "rigged elections," and especially Trump's claims that he may not accept the results of the election should voters choose Hillary Clinton.
“I'm even more confused by Republican politicians who still support Donald Trump,” Obama said. “Marco Rubio is one of those people. How does that work? How can you call him a ‘con artist’ and ‘dangerous’ and object to all the controversial things he says and then say, ‘But I'm still gonna vote for him?' C'mon, man!”
“You know what that is, though? It is the height of cynicism,” he said.“That's the sign of someone who will say anything, do anything, pretend to be anybody just to get elected. And you know what? If you're willing to be anybody just to be somebody, then you don't have the leadership that Florida needs in the United States Senate.”
"I agree with the U.S. senator, a Republican, who a while back said that we can't afford to give the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual," Obama said to cheers from the crowd. "By the way, you know who said that? Marco Rubio!"
Obama cited Rubio's comments from February, when he called Trump a "con artist."
"Say it again!" an attendee shouted.
"Do you want me to say it again?" Obama asked. "He said, Marco Rubio said, this was a dangerous con artist who spent a lifetime, spent a career, sticking it to working people! Now that begs the question, since we're in Florida: why does Marco Rubio still plan to vote for Donald Trump?"
"He's refuting the dangerous and unprecedented claims of a candidate he says he's still going to vote for!" Obama said. "Which just gives you one more bit of proof that Marco seems to just care about hanging onto his job."
"Progress is on the ballot. Stability is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Equality is on the ballot. Our democracy is on the ballot. Hillary Clinton will advance those things," Obama said. "Donald Trump wants to reverse progress. Marco Rubio wants to help him."
“Just the other night in the debate, Marco Rubio did not accept that sea level’s rising. If you are watching TV or you are going down some of the blocks right here in Miami, in the middle of a sunny day you see ocean coming up through streets. How can you deny what is right in front of you?”
“Patrick Murphy, when he is your United States senator, he is going to be doing his work. In fact, unlike his opponent, he shows up to work,” Obama said. “Unlike his opponent, he didn’t walk away from Florida’s Hispanic community when the politics got tough: He fought for comprehensive immigration reform and a path of citizenship. Unlike his opponent, Patrick actually believes in science and the effects of climate change."
On the Republican Party and how they created a monster in Trump, who's now eating them alive:
"Trump didn't come out of nowhere," he said, citing the rise of Republican politicians and far-right news outlets who have promoted conspiracy theories like birtherism, the long-refuted claim that Obama was not born in the United States.
"They've been saying crazy stuff, and there are a lot of politicians like Marco Rubio who know better, but they just look the other way," he said.
Obama blamed politicians like Rubio for encouraging far-right conspiracy theories and obstructing Democrat-backed political initiatives to gain popular support.
"They just stood by and said nothing, even though they knew better, while their base actually started believing some of this stuff," he said.
He went on to shred Republican members of Congress for standing by Trump through a flood of controversies, including his "bromance with Putin," his comments calling Mexican immigrants "criminals and rapists," and his attacks on a Gold Star family.
"I don't give a lot of credit to folks who are just now trying to walk away from Trump. Although I will say I'm even more confused by Republican politicians who still support Donald Trump."
Meanwhile, as crowds across the state cheered at President Obama's reality check on Rubio's hypocrisy, the absentee Senator held his own campaign event, speaking to a small crowd of supporters. This version of the "somebody" Rubio pretended to be never mentioned his continued support of Trump. In fact, he didn't even mention Trump's name at all.
After getting nearly laughed out of the studio during his debate with Patrick Murphy earlier this week when he danced around the answer to the tough question "Will you serve your entire six year term if reelected?" Marco Rubio is slipping in the polls. The belief that he would just easily sail his way back into the Senate isn't quite working out the way he'd hoped. Even his hometown paper, The Miami Herald, has washed their hands of him and endorsed Murphy instead.
As the man Rubio supports for President would say, "Sad!"
Today Rubio tried a new twist to gain attention, favor, and perhaps votes, and it's quite the pretzel:
For starters, let me just say big of him to wait until he knew there was nothing of political import to be found in those hacks (and no, Rubio, they aren't "leaks." They're called "stolen information") to make such a statement in the first place. After all, Wikileaks didn't just start dropping this stuff yesterday.
Some seeing this declaration of so-called principle on Rubio's part, including some in the beltway media, are patting Rubio on the back for taking a moral stand where others in his party won't. I say don't be gullible. Sure, there's a chance he actually means this, just as there's a chance that climate change isn't really happening and Marco Rubio is just the only one privy to the truth.
It's more likely he's "not talking about it" by talking about it now for good reasons. Let me suggest a few.
He may be hoping he'll get name dropped by Hillary Clinton during the final debate tonight and credited for taking a stand in the hopes of winning over some Murphy voters. The problem there is, of course, he still supports Trump, which brings us to another problem: Trump is the one who invited Russian hackers to take a look-see at Hillary Clinton in the first place, and not long after, it seems they obliged. And then some. This of course, then leads to Trump's Putin problem, and so on, and so on. You could say it's a virtual Matryoshka doll of problems for Rubio.
Of course then there's Rubio's Captain Obvious impersonation. Leave it to Rubio to be the last one to notice the elephant in the room, that his own party, and perhaps his own personal information, are hardly immune to hackers. I can't be the only one picturing the moment when Rubio started trying to mentally picture everything he might have written over the years in his own emails, and then imagining him thinking to himself, "Oh crap!"
Thirdly, it's truly adorable that Rubio wants to warn others against trying to "capitalize politically" only after giving it careful time and thought to figure out his own way of politically capitalizing on the subject himself, and then "leaking" his holier-than-thou thoughts on the Wikileak problem to the awaiting media.
Never mind that Rubio has, and still does, support the only presidential candidate who is practically inviting Putin to interfere with our election, and our democracy in the first place. That hasn't changed.
So, nice try Marco. Oh, and good luck with your delete key, by the way.
After 11 women came forward in just one day this week to say that Donald Trump is indeed just the man he boasted to be: one who could sexually assault women and get away with it because of who he is, Marco Rubio is one of the Florida Republicans still endorsing him for President.
Marco Rubio, who has daughters of his own, is still supporting Trump even after revelations that Trump walked in on naked teenagers in the dressing room at a beauty pageant he owned, something that was apparently the norm for him at the other pageants he owned, walk-ins which he called "inspections."
After everything that Donald Trump has said and done for over a year now, beginning with his charge that Mexicans were drug dealers and rapists, to the allegations now spilling out daily for things he's done in the past, the only time Rubio opposed Trump was when he was a threat to Rubio's own political ambitions for 2016 in the presidential primaries. Soon after dropping out, Rubio flip-flopped on his decision to run for his Senate seat again, and as he did so, he endorsed the man who humiliated him, and who did a number of things Rubio criticized him for previously.
Because that's who Rubio is. He will do just about anything, no matter how low and dishonest, to further his political career.
Even if you were to ignore everything else Rubio's done and said, like how he hates his job in the Senate, and the fact that he's set records for his absenteeism there, how he's taken stands against women, health care, the LGBT community, and just about anything that would be good for his constituents -because Obama- his support for an admitted sexual predator for the office of the President tells you all you need to know about his "character" and that alone disqualifies him from office.
The two women you see above are Trump supporters at one of his rallies from photos circulating on Twitter, and there are many more just like them. These are the types of voters Rubio hopes to win over with his support of Trump. Because Rubio is running for the Senate again not because he wants the job, but because he wants to keep the seat warm as a stepping stone to another run for POTUS in 2020. And in doing so, if he has to stand in support of a sexual predator to do it, so be it.
When the "Trump Tapes" first surfaced last week, where Trump bragged that he could sexually assault women and get away with it because he was a star, this was the only thing Rubio said about it, a single tweet:
Which, in Rubio doublespeak, means absolutely nothing. It's a typical move by Rubio, who seeks to have it both ways on any number of positions, which is to publicly "condemn" something while continuing to support it. Because not long after this tweet, Rubio was asked if he still supported Trump. His response was "my position has not changed." He claimed that he wished there were better choices for president, but he supports the one who is an admitted sexual predator (among other things) and continues to bash his opponent, Democrat Patrick Murphy, because he would stand with Hillary Clinton on the issues. You know, issues like improving health care, the economy, creating jobs, improving the lives of women and children, and more. These are the kinds of horrors Rubio cannot stomach, while he apparently can stomach a candidate who walks in on naked teenagers, and who looks at 10-year-old girls and says he'll be dating them in 10 years.
Because that's who Rubio is. He supports Trump and he wants the support of Trump voters like those pictured above in the future.
Even today as I write, more allegations against Trump are coming out. And as I write, Rubio still supports the man the allegations are against.
In a jaw-dropping 2004 interview with Sirius XM shock jock Howard Stern, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that actress Lindsay Lohan is clearly “deeply troubled” and therefore “great in bed.”
...“What do you think of Lindsay Lohan?” Trump asked Stern.
“I think she’s hot,” Stern replied.
“There’s something there right?” Trump said. “But you have to like freckles. I’ve seen a, you know, close up of her chest and a lot of freckles. Are you into freckles?”
“I’m not into freckles, but the red hair thing I like. I like her on the cover of Entertainment Weekly,” said Stern.
A bit later, Trump said, “Now does the father wreck, does that bother you a little bit?”
“Oh yeah, because first of all, if the father’s a wreck like the way he is…,” Stern said.
“Right,” Trump agreed.
Stern asked, “Can you imagine the sex with this troubled teen?”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Trump said. “She’s probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women, you know, deeply, deeply troubled, they’re always the best in bed?”
That's the man Rubio hopes becomes the next President.
Kristin Anderson was deep in conversation with acquaintances at a crowded Manhattan nightspot and did not notice the figure to her right on a red velvet couch — until, she recalls, his fingers slid under her miniskirt, moved up her inner thigh, and touched her vagina through her underwear.
Anderson shoved the hand away, fled the couch and turned to take her first good look at the man who had touched her, she said.
She recognized him as Donald Trump.
...Anderson, who said she doesn’t support Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton, did not initially approach The Post. A reporter contacted her after hearing her story from a person who knew of it, and she spent several days trying to decide whether to go public.
Anderson’s decision to do so follows last week’s disclosure by The Washington Post of a 2005 video in which Trump boasted to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that his celebrity gave him the ability to grab women “by the p---y. You can do anything.”
Trump insisted that his comments were “just words” and dismissed them as “locker room banter.”
Pressed about them in Sunday night’s debate against Clinton, Trump said that he had never done the things he had talked about, which would constitute sexual assault.
What Anderson described, however, is consistent with the behavior Trump described on the video.
“It wasn’t a sexual come-on. I don’t know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen,” Anderson said. “There was zero conversation. We didn’t even really look at each other. It was very random, very nonchalant on his part.”
Rubio, who has young daughters of his own, thinks the man who does this should run the country, because others who think the same just might vote for Rubio in the future.
These are just the latest in a virtual tsunami of women coming forward to say that Trump is very much the man who boasted he could get away with sexually assaulting women because he's Donald Trump, and they have the emotional scars to prove it.
There are a lot of reasons Marco Rubio isn't fit for another go at the Senate job he hates, and likely won't fully serve because he'll take another run at POTUS, but these top the list.
And that goes for every other Republican out there who continues to support this repulsive man for President.
This is not leadership. This is cowardice at the most extreme level.
A federal judge on Wednesday extended voter registration until Oct. 18 in the battleground state of Florida, due to the disruption and damage from Hurricane Matthew.
During a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker agreed to extend the deadline for six more days. He had already extended the Oct. 11 deadline one day, after the Florida Democratic Party filed a lawsuit last weekend, following the hurricane's brush with Florida's east coast.
Walker said in an order issued shortly afterward that he acted swiftly because "no right is more precious than having a voice in our democracy."
"Hopefully it is not lost on anyone that the right to have a voice is why this great country exists in the first place," wrote Walker, who set the deadline at 5 p.m. on Oct. 18....
...Democrats late last week asked Republican Gov. Rick Scott to extend the deadline, but Scott turned down the request and said people have had enough time to register. Scott brushed aside questions on whether his decision was related to his staunch support of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
In court, however, attorneys for both Scott and the state's chief top elections official offered no defense of the existing deadline and did not object to an extension. Most of the hour-long hearing before Walker was spent discussing how long to extend voter registration.
Walker said he did not believe that Scott had authority to use his emergency powers to waive the deadline. But he also pointed out that Florida law already allows the governor to suspend or delay an election if there is an emergency.
"There is a gap in Florida law that renders (the deadline) constitutionally untenable," Walker said.
