Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says the House impeachment managers have spent time “convincing” senators of facts about the level of violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that they already knew.
During an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, Rubio addressed the Democrats’ arguments in the impeachment trial, “They spent a lot of time yesterday convincing us what I already knew and believed.”
“And that is that the attack on Jan. 6 was outrageous, criminal, deadly, it could have been far worse, I knew that as well,” he continued.
However, he said the issue being debated is whether the impeachment and conviction of former President Donald Trump is the proper response to the violence at the Capitol.
“My answer to that is no,” he said.
Watch the video below:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Fox & Friends seems to be a hard "no" on impeachment conviction, despite calling the January 6th insurrection "outrageous, criminal, deadly, it could have been far worse, I knew that as well." pic.twitter.com/dFEaCy4npP
— The Recount (@therecount) February 11, 2021
House Democrats are arguing in the Senate’s impeachment trial that Trump incited the violence by claiming for weeks that the presidential election was stolen from him.
They also point to his comments at a rally in Washington, D.C., shortly before his supporters stormed the Capitol, where he suggested that they march to the building.
Rubio has previously decried the push for impeachment as he claimed it would further inflame tensions in the country.
“We already have a flaming fire in this country, and it’s like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace in January.
He also called the impeachment effort “stupid.”
While he does not believe impeachment is the proper route for Congress to take, he has said that Trump bears some responsibility for the violence.
“I think the president bears responsibility for some of what happened. It was most certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on,” he said.
“I think that’s widely understood and maybe even better understood with the perspective of time. I think that’s separate from the notion of ‘let’s revisit this all and stir it up again.'”
However, the Florida senator voted late last month to declare that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional.
It is seen as unlikely that there will be enough senators to reach the two-thirds majority, or 67-vote, threshold for conviction as at least 17 Republican senators would need to vote to convict.
Still, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is signaling to his members that the vote on conviction will be a vote of conscience and that he will not lobby his members on how they vote.
