Senator Marco Rubio said Tuesday that the second impeachment of former president Trump is driven by his political opponents’ desire for “vengeance” and dismissed the idea that they wanted to hold him accountable for the Capitol riot.
“Waste of time impeachment isn’t about accountability,” Rubio wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.
“It’s about demands from vengeance from the radical left” as well as “a new ‘show’ for the ‘Political Entertainment Industry,'” the Florida Republican added.
On Sunday, Rubio called the effort to impeach Trump in order to bar him from running for office again “arrogant,” saying “voters get to decide” who is elected.
The House delivered the single article of impeachment against Trump on grounds of “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate Monday evening. Democrats filed the impeachment article after Trump supporters forced their past security and marauded through the halls of Congress, shortly after attending a rally in front of the White House where Trump urged them to “fight.”
In the impeachment article, Democrats cited the 14th Amendment, which prevents those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. from ever holding public office in the future.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that the impeachment trial will begin the week of February 8. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed to delay to Senate trial to give both the Trump team and Democratic prosecutors time to prepare their arguments. While multiple reports suggest McConnell is pleased about the Democratic efforts to impeach Trump, on the grounds that the move would make it easier for Republicans to purge him from the party, he has said publicly that he has not decided whether he will vote to convict.
Last week Rubio said he would vote against impeachment and argued that the process will “continue to fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.”
Rubio added that Trump is entitled to “due process,” and cautioned that “the House doesn’t have much of a record of witnesses because they rammed it through very quickly.”
“The first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I will do it, because I think it’s really bad for America,” Rubio said.