Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says the House impeachment managers have spent time âconvincingâ senators of facts about the level of violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that they already knew.
During an appearance on âFox & Friendsâ on Thursday, Rubio addressed the Democratsâ arguments in the impeachment trial, âThey spent a lot of time yesterday convincing us what I already knew and believed.â
âAnd that is that the attack on Jan. 6 was outrageous, criminal, deadly, it could have been far worse, I knew that as well,â 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.
âMy answer to that is no,â he said.
Watch the video below:
House Democrats are arguing in the Senateâs 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.
âWe already have a flaming fire in this country, and itâs like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire,â he told Fox Newsâ Chris Wallace in January.
He also called the impeachment effort âstupid.â
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.
âI think the president bears responsibility for some of what happened. It was most certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on,â he said.
âI think thatâs widely understood and maybe even better understood with the perspective of time. I think thatâs separate from the notion of âletâs revisit this all and stir it up again.'â
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.