On Thursday, Sen. Rubio tried to create some safe space between him and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, “We’re in a Trump-free zone today. I’m working on a lot of other stuff,” while trying to evade any discussion of Trump’s comments against Judge Gonzalo Curiel. When pressed further, he replied “I didn’t see it, guys. I’m working on other things. I know that’s your life, but it’s not mine anymore.”
To hear him tell it, Florida’s junior U.S. Senator Marco Rubio is just trying to focus on what’s important in the time he has left in Washington. So naturally, he has no time to answer questions about his often contrarian positions on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. But, what exactly is more important than electing a candidate to the highest-held office in the country?
Rubio has made it clear that he dislikes Trump, having called the man unfit for the Presidency, and, yet, he refuses to rescind his official support for the racist presumptive Republican nominee. Leadership isn’t sitting silently in the corner. What Floridians need is for Rubio and other local leaders to take the courageous step of rescinding their support of Trump. Otherwise, they are encouraging not just his racist rhetoric, but advancing his anti-immigrant policies that would divide neighbors and families alike.
Our nation and our state’s problems are too important to leave it to a divisive figure whose greatest achievements seem to be stoking fear and sowing doubts about the Americanness of anyone who dares to disagree with him. A man whose vitriolic commentary includes not only trying to punish Curiel for his Latino heritage, but also calling Mexicans “rapists,” and insisting that the “overwhelming amount of violent crime in our major cities is committed by blacks and Hispanics.”
“A Trump free zone is exactly what we’re working for, but it’s not enough to simply distance yourself from Trump and pretend that he isn’t the presumptive Republican nominee. There is nothing in politics more important” said Elbert Garcia, Director of Florida’s Voice, “We need our Republican leaders to do the right thing and ensure that his corrosive anti-Latino agenda doesn’t make it into the White House.”
