A feisty Sen. Marco Rubio refused to preemptively accept the results of the 2024 presidential election, arguing that he needs to see how the contest unfolds first.
Rubio (R-Fla.), who is widely rumored as a top contender to be former President Donald Trump’s vice president, underscored how Democrats cast aspersions on Republican victories in past elections.
“No matter what happens? No! If it’s an unfair election, I think it’s going to be contested by each side,” Rubio replied to NBC’s “Meet the Press Sunday” when asked if he’d accept the “results no matter what happens.”
Marco Rubio would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election. REUTERSModerator Kristen Welker then clarified she was asking if he’d respect the outcome “no matter who wins.”
“I think you’re asking the wrong person. The Democrats are the ones that have opposed every Republican victory since 2000. Every single one,” Rubio shot back.
Numerous rumored candidates in the veepstakes have danced around questions about pre-committing to accepting the election results, including Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Back on Jan. 6, 2021, Rubio joined most of his Republican peers in opposing objections to the certification of President Biden’s election victory.
A total of eight senators and 139 House lawmakers backed objections. At the time, Trump, 77, had pressed for Congress to reject Biden’s victory.
“Democracy is held together by people’s confidence in the election and their willingness to abide by its results,” Rubio declared at the time.
But on Sunday Rubio went off about Democrats’ history of knocking the legitimacy of GOP victories, claiming that Hillary Clinton suggested “Trump was illegitimate” and that Vice President Kamala Harris conveyed similar sentiments.
Donald Trump has said he’ll accept the results if “everything’s honest.” AP“By the way, there are Democrats serving in Congress today who, in 2004, voted not to certify the Ohio vote,” he said. “And you have Democrats now saying they won’t certify 2024 because Trump is an insurrectionist and ineligible to hold office.”
“I bet you’ve never asked a Democrat that question.”
When pressed about why he voted to certify the 2020 election, Rubio argued that “at that stage in the process, you have no option.”
He also raised concerns about how the 2020 election was conducted with dropboxes in Wisconsin and Georgia.
Trump, himself, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he would respect the 2024 results in Wisconsin provided that “everything’s honest.”
Rubio was also coy about whether he would accept the VP slot if offered to him.
“That would be presumptuous for me,” the Sunshine State senator quipped.
“I think anyone who’s offered that job to serve this country in the second highest office — assuming everything else in your life makes sense at that moment — if you’re interested in serving the country, it’s an incredible place to serve.”
The 45th president has teased that he will make an announcement on that front public before the Republican National Convention slated for July 15 to 18.
