U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is being considered for the Vice President job by the presumptive GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump, said on Meet the Press this weekend that he would not accept the results of the 2024 presidential election if it’s an “unfair election.”
Rubio isn’t the only vice presidential candidate who is refusing to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) told CNN he “plans” to accept the results if he deems the process “free and fair.”
Sen. Marco Rubio obliterates Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker when she asks "will you accept the election results of 2024 no matter what happens?" pic.twitter.com/l8SPWAjsTd
— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) May 19, 2024
MAGA loyalists and VP contenders Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) have also refused to say if they would certify the results of the 2024 election.
Rubio — who voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election as did then-Vice President Mike Pence — tried to shift the focus to Democrats and said: “I think you’re asking the wrong person. The Democrats are the ones that have opposed every Republican victory since 2000. Every single one.”
Plenty of Republicans have flunked the will-you-accept-the-election-results test, but Marco Rubio's ludicrous whataboutism was arguably the worst answer to date. https://t.co/6atg2npF3H
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) May 20, 2024
Steve Benen, producer of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, responded to Rubio’s recent remarks: “Plenty of Republicans have flunked the will-you-accept-the-election-results test, but Marco Rubio’s ludicrous whataboutism was arguably the worst answer to date.”
Benen wrote: “The idea that there’s a parallel between Democratic responses to recent Republican presidential victories and Trump’s reaction to his 2020 defeat is so incredibly ludicrous, it’s incredible that Rubio chose to peddle the line on national television.” [NOTE: Trump continues to refute the election results, tried to stop VP Pence from certifying the election, and refused to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration.]
Defeated Democratic presidential nominees Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton all conceded their losses and assisted in peaceful transitions of power from Democratic to Republican administrations — or in the case of Kerry, the continuation of a Republican administration. “There was no violence. There were no rallies or riots,” Benen wrote.
Senior Investigative reporter at The Conversation, Kurt Eichenwald, took note of the Florida senator’s tactics too, writing: “Ya know, Marco Rubio whataboutism was a tactic developed by the KGB, and was named by the CIA. But given the GOP love for Russia, I guess that’s just your SOP.”
A funny comment on that post revealed something everybody already knows: “The tactic of ‘whataboutism’ may have roots in the KGB, but it is well-known & employed on every elementary school playground in the land.”
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