Marco Rubio Bucks Mitch McConnell on Jan. 6, Says It Wasn’t a ‘Violent Insurrection’ Because There Was ‘No Way They Were Going to Overthrow the Government’

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has rejected Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) description of the storming of the U.S. Capitol as a “violent insurrection.”

Rubio spoke to NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer on Wednesday, who asked him why he declines to call January 6th a “violent insurrection.” His answer: “There was no way they were going to overthrow the government of the United States.”

“It wasn’t going to happen,” Rubio continued. “They were able to delay by a few hours, the vote count but there was absolutely no way did we ever come close in any way shape or form to those people leading to the overthrow of the government of the United States of America.”

Rubio’s comments come shortly after McConnell rebuked the Republican National Committee for censuring Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) over their work with the January 6th Committee. Since the RNC also pronounced the events leading up to January 6th as “legitimate political discourse,” McConnell characterized the storming of the Capitol as “a violent insurrection with the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”

The way Rubio sees it, the siege on Congress is more properly described as a “riot,” rather than an “insurrection.”

It was a riot. It was a dangerous riot. It was a violent one. It should have never happened and it should never happen again. But I also do not think people should be misled to think this somehow was on the verge of overthrowing the government or preventing the certification. It delayed things by a few hours, you’re not allowed to do that. It’s a crime to interfere, but it in no way threatened the stability of the government of the United States.

The storming of the Capitol was fueled by Trump’s countless lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and a crowd of his supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” after the former vice president refused Trump’s order to stop Congress from certifying the election’s result. Pence recently rebuked Trump’s claim that he had the power to overturn the election, and Rubio skirted around the issue in order to bash the January 6th Committee.

Watch above, via Kellie Meyer.

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