Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) slammed the violent riot that broke out at the Capitol last week, saying that it was disgusting and that the majority of Trump supporters do not support it.
“It’s disgusting. It’s unpatriotic. It runs counter to everything we stand for,” Rubio told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “I can’t give you an assessment of every single person that went in there. But it’s clear now by the arrests that are being made and what groups are saying online that QAnon people were involved, this ridiculous conspiracy.”
“Then you have got white supremacists in there. You have got members of the Proud Boys,” he continued. “So, it’s a rogue’s gallery of groups, and who thought that they were going to storm the Capitol, they were going to apprehend the vice president and members of Congress, and have them pay the ultimate price, as they called it, I mean, string them up, they would say. And I have had people at protests here in Florida calling for me to be strung up and others. So, it’s completely unacceptable.”
“Ninety percent of the country or more would agree with what I just said. The overwhelming majority of people who voted for Donald Trump would agree with everything I just said. And it was a moment where we could sort of say, this is enough, guys. I mean, our country can’t keep doing these kinds of things and unify the country,” he continued. “That’s not what’s happened, unfortunately. The left has decided this is an opportunity to destroy the right. So, if you ever voted for Donald Trump, if you ever supported anything he did, you are just as guilty as the people who went into that Capitol.”
Rubio noted that the Left was seizing the opportunity now to put pressure on social media companies to “erase everybody” that they want silenced.
“We’re now living in a country where four or five companies, unelected, unaccountable, have the power, a monopoly power to decide, we’re going to wipe people out, we’re going to just erase them from any sort of digital platform, whether it’s selling things and the like,” Rubio continued. “Even if you don’t like Donald Trump, that should be concerning that they have that power. It’s also very cynical, by the way, OK? Facebook, Twitter, these are not moral champions here. The reason why these guys are doing it is because the Democrats are about to take power, and they view this as a way to get on their good side to avoid any sort of restrictions or any sort of laws being passed that hurt them.”
Rubio said that he believes that the president bears “some responsibility” for what happened and that will be looked at. Rubio added that it was time for the conservative movement to distance itself from a very small segment of the base that he said are “wackos” and “nut jobs.”
“Now, 99 percent of the people that were at that protest did not storm that Capitol. They have strong feelings about the election. They support the president. And they were not a part of it,” he said. “But there is this element, very small, but enough people to create a tremendous amount of damage and put a lot of people in danger. And we should be rejecting that group not after the fact, but before. And to the extent anyone has indulged that, I think that’s important to recognize and point to and say, look, this is why we have to watch what we say and who we allow into the movement, because these are the people that can do terrible things.”