Former president Donald Trump is attempting to block a House committee from obtaining White House documents related to Jan. 6 because they are "probably" incriminating, according to one former GOP congressman.
Rep., Carlos Curbelo, who represented Florida in Congress from 2015 to 2019 and now serves as a political analyst for MSNBC, is one of two dozen Republican former lawmakers who signed a brief opposing Trump's lawsuit claiming the documents are protected by executive privilege.
"The reason Donald Trump is claiming executive privilege is because he doesn't want people to know the truth, because whatever is in those documents is surely embarrassing and probably indicting, so he doesn't want people to see it," Curbelo told MSNBC's Deadline: White House on Friday. "Plus, he probably thinks it will make it harder for him to run in 2024 if he ultimately decides to do that."
Curbelo also discussed Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger's announcement Friday that he will not seek re-election. Curbelo told host Nicole Wallace that he believes the GOP will "burn to the ground" naturally if it doesn't move away from Trump.
"More and more, especially with young generations of voters, there is not a market for Trumpism," Curbelo said. "So the Republican Party will ultimately fail if it doesn't not move away from this one-man rule inside the party."
"Trump lost Congress for Republicans," he added. "He lost the presidency for Republicans. He went out of his way to make sure Republicans lost two seats in Georgia, pushing Mitch McConnell into the minority in the Senate, yet Republicans who are fearful of a primary challenge ... find a need to continue returning to the altar of Donald Trump to get a blessing and get another two years in Congress. And at the end of the day, these people have to ask themselves, is it worth it? Look at everything that's at stake. I very rarely sign public documents or letters these days, but I thought I had to do this, because this is about the truth. This is about defending our country's democracy."
Curbelo, the son of Cuban exiles, added that his parents "lost their country" because "there was no rule of law."
"We don't want that to happen here, and that's why I signed that letter, and that's why I hope even as Adam Kinzinger leaves Congress, that more Republicans will wake up and understand that this is a lot bigger than another few years in the House of Representatives," he said.
Carlos Curbelo on Trump Jan. 6 suit www.youtube.com
