Travis Gettys is a senior editor for Raw Story based in northern Kentucky. He previously worked as a web editor for WLWT-TV and a contributing writer for the Kentucky Enquirer, and he also wrote for the award-winning Sadly, No! blog. He has covered national, state and local politics, breaking news, criminal investigations and trials, sports and a variety of community issues, with a special emphasis on racial justice, right-wing extremism and gun safety.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough shamed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and other Republicans for debasing themselves to defend Donald Trump following his criminal conviction.
The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee was found guilty Thursday on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up other crimes, including New York election law, and the "Morning Joe" host ripped Rubio for comparing his prosecution to the show trials in communist Cuba.
"Even Trump's own attorney said the jury was serious, they did a good job, they paid attention – he did not find fault with them at all," Scarborough said. "He said they paid attention and did their job. But you have Marco Rubio and other Republicans who, again, because they want Donald Trump to notice them, attack an institution like America's jury system, then compares the United States of America, the USA, compares us to Castro's communist Cuba."
"What's happened to Marco Rubio? Where is he? " Scarborough added. "That is so deeply unsettling, for us, for him, for the Republican Party, for the people who vote for him, for the people who vote for this Republican Party, because you're losing when you talk this way, when you attack the rule of law, when you attack the FBI, when you attack jurors. Maybe you get $25 in fundraising, you know, blitzes, but you lose independent voters. You lose swing voters in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, and you lose elections. They keep doing this, and they keep losing elections. I just, again, I wonder how long can they keep going off the cliff for this guy?"