Sen. Marco Rubio Sunday said he agrees with former Vice President Mike Pence that he would not have had the power to reject the Electoral College votes and overturn the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, despite former President Donald Trump's continued insistence that he could have played that role.
"If President Trump runs for reelection, I believe he would defeat Joe Biden, and I don't want Kamala Harris to have the powers as vice president to overturn that election, and that's the same thing I concluded back in January of 2021," the Florida Republican said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
But when show moderator Margaret Brennan asked Rubio if that means he thinks Trump is wrong, he reiterated that he does not "think the vice president has that power. If the vice president has that power, and Trump would defeat Joe Biden in two years, Kamala Harris could decide to overturn the election and I don't want to wind up there."
Pence drew fire from Trump this past Friday when he told a Federalist Society event in Florida that "there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."
Rubio also spoke out against the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol, saying that he does think anyone who committed crimes should be prosecuted, but the committee's true purpose is to "try to embarrass and smear and harass as many Republicans as they can get their hands on."
"I think that commission is a scam," he said. "I think it's a complete partisan scam and I think anyone who committed a crime on January 6 should be prosecuted and if convicted, put in jail. I don't think we need a congressional commission to harass people."
Rubio further discussed the growing threat Russia is posing on Ukraine and said that if an invasion happens, it will destabilize Europe.
"This is the single greatest threat Europe has faced since the 1940s," said the senator. "I think it will have a global impact because we're now, all of a sudden, once again, living in a world in which countries and leaders can decide that something belongs to them and they go in and take it by force…if we now live in a world that you can go in and take a country because you believe it belongs to you and can do so militarily, we have entered a very dangerous period."
However, he insisted there will be "no U.S. combat role in Ukraine."
"I don't know of anyone who supports it, not even the Ukrainians," said Rubio. "I think Vladimir Putin has to pay a high price if he does this, not just for him to pay the price but for other countries to see that price and other leaders, and I think that price should be his economy should be crippled and hurt badly."
Further, if there is an invasion, that will be the "easiest part," said Rubio. "The hardest part will be occupation. The Ukrainians are not going to welcome them with roses. Occupation of any country on Earth knows how painful and difficult it is."
He also spoke out about the growing influence of China, particularly on U.S. supply chains.
"This country has to be a country that makes things again," he said, adding that much of what's being made in China is "made by slave labor."
"I think there are many countries, like Nike, that have benefited from companies located in that part of the world," he said. "There are people buying from subcontractors. Many know they are sourcing material from that area but have continued to allow it to happen. We saw the lobbying efforts of Apple and Nike and others arguing that this would raise the cost for consumers, but ultimately, it's slave labor and it's a horrific genocide."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.