Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) slammed the guilty verdict in former President Trump’s hush money trial, adding late Thursday that most people wouldn’t be able to afford to “fight this stuff off.”
“I think it’s terrible. I think what this shows today, is that they can go after a former president with a ridiculous charge like this and gain a conviction, they can go after anybody,” Rubio, a possible Trump running mate in November’s election, said on Fox News’s “Hannity.”
“And most people can’t afford to fight this stuff off.”
Rubio also said he believes the left targeted Trump in an attempt to keep him out of office.
“The shock is that this could happen in America,” Rubio said, later adding the verdict is an “ugly, ugly blemish [for the] reputation around the world.”
Rubio’s comments came just hours after 12 New York jurors made history by convicting Trump on 34 felony charges.
The verdict throws the 2024 presidential election into uncharted territory as both sides grapple with how to move forward. Immediately after the decision, Trump began fundraising on the announcement, as did his closest allies.
Rubio posted a link on the social platform X to a fundraising page telling his followers to not “just get angry about this travesty, get even!” The donation page crashed and Trump’s campaign said it was because of an influx of donations.
The Florida senator is rumored to be on Trump’s list of possible vice presidential candidates. The senator and other contenders to be the former president’s running mate rushed to his defense after the verdict after weeks of criticizing the case.
Rubio during the Fox News interview argued that the conviction may actually help Trump in the polls.
“Politically, I think it’s good. I think, unfortunately, they’ve made a travesty, a mockery of our criminal justice system,” he said.