Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement on Friday explaining his decision to acquit Donald Trump in his Senate impeachment trial – but while doing so he admitted that the president committed an impeachable offense.
According to Rubio, Trump’s actions “meet a standard of impeachment” but it’s not in the “best interest” to impeach him.
“Six weeks ago I announced that, for me, the question would not just be whether the President’s actions were wrong, but ultimately whether what he did was removable,” he writes. “The two are not the same. Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office.”
Rubio ultimately agrees with all the allegations made against the president and even claims that they are wrong. But his biggest concern seems to be that if he decides to remove Trump he would look bad in the eyes of Trump supporters.
“Can anyone doubt that at least half of the country would view his removal as illegitimate — as nothing short of a coup d’état?” he asks. “It is difficult to conceive of any scheme Putin could undertake that would undermine confidence in our democracy more than removal would.”
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