veepstakes

Marco Rubio is wetting his pants over the possibility of being Trump’s #2

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MIAMI, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 06: Former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) during a rally at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition on November 6, 2022 in Miami, Florida. Rubio faces U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) in his reelection bid in Tuesday's general election. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Donald Trump still hasn’t announced who he’s going to pick as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election, but a new figure has emerged as a strong possibility and it’s none other than fellow Floridian Marco Rubio.

The U.S. Constitution and the rules of the Electoral College prohibit running mates from the same state. The 12th Amendment specifically says that electors for each state “vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.”

That said it’s not like Trump has taken the founding document into account when making any decisions. In fact, we’re 99.9% sure he hasn’t even read it since it wasn’t written in bullet points. So we wouldn’t put it past him to buck the rules and pick another Floridian as his VP. Especially if it helps him avoid going to prison get elected.

As for Rubio, he clearly doesn’t give a damn about the rules either. Speaking to reporters the other day, he was positively giddy over the thought of being Trump’s #2.

“Anybody who would be offered the chance to serve their country as vice president should consider that to be an honor,” he said. “I mean, that’s why I’m in public service.”

He added that he hasn’t spoken to anyone from Trump’s camp about the possibility, but promised “If that changes, I’ll let you know.”

A longtime GOP operative from Florida recently told NBC that the 52-year-old senator, who has a 0 out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard for his long anti-LGBTQ+ record, is very much in the running, saying, “It’s pretty clear from Trump’s orbit that Rubio is in play. It makes sense because he checks almost every box, if they can get past both being from Florida.”

Again, sounds like both men are past it. And it’s not like the RNC, which is now being run by Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, is going to step in and demand they play by the rules. (Lara’s way too busy posing for selfies with Gays For Trump leader Scott Presler to be bothered with that sorta thing.)

Two MAGA insiders told USA Today this week that the one term, twice-impeached, quadruply-indicted ex-president is currently focused on his hush money criminal trial that he kicks off in New York on April 15 rather than picking a running mate.

That and raising money for the nearly $600 million in civil judgments he’s been ordered to pay since the start of the year.

Oh, and fundraising for his campaign.

Trump is currently waaaaay behind Joe Biden when it comes to cash on hand. The Biden campaign recently announced it hit $155 million in fundraising dollars, compared to the Trump campaign’s much less impressive $36.6 million.

The ex-president and the anti-LGBTQ+ Florida senator have a complicated past. In 2016, Trump nicknamed Rubio “Little Marco” after Rubio accurately accused him of being a “con artist.” (Trump’s recent civil fraud trial in New York, in which he was ordered to pay over $450 million for lying about the value of his real estate portfolio, would confirm what Rubio said all those years ago.)

“What we are dealing with my friends is a con artist, he is a con artist,” Rubio said when they were both running for the Republican nomination. “First of all, he runs on this idea that he is fighting for the little guy, but he has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists!”

Rubio has since shrugged off his 2016 criticisms of Trump, saying, “It was a campaign.” He also voted to acquit Trump after January 6, saying his second impeachment trial was nothing more than political theater and an attempt by Democrats to smear Republicans.

(His exact words were: “Impeachment exists for one principal reason: to remove from office an office holder guilty of wrongdoing. And claiming that anyone who doesn’t vote to convict someone no longer in office is the equivalent of supporting a criminal mob is nothing but hyper-partisan politicians masquerading as high minded prosecutors trying to smear their political opponents.”)

Meanwhile, Trump hasn’t really attacked Rubio since they were both running for president eight years ago, probably because, after he took office, Rubio voted with the ex-president 88% of the time. Loyalty!

In all honesty, if it weren’t for that pesky 12th Amendment, Little Marco actually wouldn’t be a terrible VP pick. As a Cuban American, he would help attract more Hispanic voters and could also win over Republicans and independents who feel uneasy about Trump.

Trump’s camp has insisted that he doesn’t have a VP shortlist and, in fact, has a very, very long list that only gets longer by the week. They’ve also indicated he probably won’t make an announcement before the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15.

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