Dem strategist: Marco Rubio is giving cover to the Proud Boys to shoot people
On Wednesday's edition of MSNBC's "The ReidOut," Democratic strategist Fernand Armani tore into Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for his claim that Christopher Monzon, a former white supremacist canvassing for the GOP in Hialeah, was violently assaulted for his political views — even as police and the attacker's Republican mother dispute that politics was a basis for the fight.
Rubio's claims are not just irresponsible, Armani argued, but liable to cause further violence.
"Even by weird Florida standards, this is pretty, pretty bizarre and strange," said Armani. "I guess it's easy to dismiss at the surface level, Marco Rubio engaged in spatial hypocrisy. No one condones any type of violence. It's curious that Marco Rubio is quick to call two people 'thugs' and 'animals', but when it comes to the actions of January 6, a curious silence and downplaying by Mr. Rubio. Just on the surface, seems like a little bit that Marco doth protest too much."
The real question, Armani continued, is "why is the Republican Party of Florida paying $10,000 to an avowed white supremacist, someone who goes by the name 'the Cuban Confederate', who has participated in hate rallies, and engaged in electoral efforts now in the midterms. I think the most important question is, if Rubio is engaged in conspiracy theory mongering, false narratives about what police reports are not reflecting, but creating an environment ... where all of a sudden he's trying to suggest that Proud Boys-like individuals like Mr. Monzon are suddenly under attack."
This matters, Armani said, because Florida infamously has a "Stand Your Ground" law, under which, "if you feel threatened, all of a sudden you can fire a gun and shoot someone in quote 'self-defense.'"
"Is Rubio kind of creating and stoking these passions that might lead to violence with Proud Boys and other avowed white supremacists who, all of a sudden, are going to use this story as a pretext to quote 'defend themselves' whenever they feel like they might be under attack in the manner that the story is being raised," said Armani. "I think it's very disturbing along those lines."
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