Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a frontrunner to become former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, indicated Sunday that he supports a Supreme Court ruling granting Trump and future presidents significant immunity from prosecution.
“I think the Supreme Court has clarified what the law is,” he said on CNN, arguing that it had become necessary “because it’s clear that we’ve reached an era where there are people in American politics who believe that our courts are now a weapon that can be used against their political opponents. Look at their efforts, what they’ve done in the courts to prosecute and prosecute Donald Trump.”
The interviewer, Dana Bash, noted that the same Justice Department that is prosecuting Mr. Trump is also prosecuting a Democratic senator, Robert Menendez of New Jersey. Mr. Rubio responded, “They only go after Democrats who don’t do everything the Democrats want them to do.”
Mr. Rubio denied that Mr. Trump had called for the Justice Department to be used as a weapon against his political opponents — something Mr. Trump has done repeatedly. Among other things, Mr. Trump has said that if re-elected, he would appoint a special counsel to investigate President Biden; he has renewed calls on social media to jail specific officials and to subject former Representative Liz Cheney to “televised military tribunals”; and he has indicated that he would intervene in prosecutorial decisions by the Justice Department.
And Mr. Rubio largely sidestepped questions about whether he could reconcile the Supreme Court ruling with his own statement in 2021 — after voting to acquit Mr. Trump in his impeachment trial for his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6 — that it was not the job of Congress to hold a former president accountable, because it should be up to “history and, if necessary, the courts” to do so. Rather than answer the question, Mr. Rubio instead repeated the baseless charge that the criminal cases against Mr. Trump were evidence of Democratic weaponization of the government.
Mr. Rubio, a staunch opponent of abortion, was also asked whether the Republican Party should change its position and say that abortion laws should be left to the states, not Congress. The prospect has angered some anti-abortion groups.
“I think our platform should reflect our nomination,” he said, adding that “even if we wanted to, you couldn’t get an abortion ban through a deeply divided Congress.”
Mr. Trump has said the same thing. He did not answer questions about whether he would support efforts by allies to restrict abortion nationwide through executive action or federal agencies.
