Open Letter to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

Commentary

On Feb. 3, I sent a letter to Marco Rubio regarding his impeachment removal vote; I received his reply today. I wondered how he feels about that vote 8 weeks later. So, I wrote to him again.

Today is Sunday, March 29, 2020. It’s early afternoon. I promised myself that today I’d take a break from writing an Around the Block. I’d take a break from following the coronavirus news. Instead, I promised myself that I’d catch up on the shows clogging my DVR and maybe watch some Netflix and Amazon Prime. I promised myself that I’d write a few more chapters of my novella; maybe even get around to the house straightening/garage cleaning that I’ve been promising to do since the the pandemic left us sheltering-in-place at home.

And then I got this: a reply to a letter I sent to Florida’s senior senator, my senator, Marco Rubio. A reply to a letter I sent to Rubio on February 3!

In my February letter I wrote, in part:

“I write this letter in utter frustration and disgust with regard to your position on the impeachment and potential removal of President Donald John Trump.

“I write this because I am deeply embarrassed, as a resident of Florida, to have you as one of my two representatives in the Senate of the United States, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s greatest deliberative body.’”

The entire letter is here:

And, here’s Senator Rubio’s reply eight weeks later:

After lecturing me on the purpose of, and rules for, the impeachment and removal of a president, Rubio explained:

“I voted not to remove President Trump on both charges because it is not in the best interest of our country. Removing a president should only be done as a last resort, and with broad bipartisan public support.

“The removal of a duly elected president is Congress’s most solemn constitutional power, one it has not exercised in the 243-year history of our Republic. I believe the 2020 election is the far better, and less damaging, remedy. This high bar I have set is not new for me. In 2014, I rejected calls to pursue impeachment of President Obama, noting that he ‘has two years left in his term,’ and, instead of pursuing impeachment, we should use existing tools at our disposal to ‘limit the amount of damage he’s doing to our economy and our national security.’”

So today, in response, I sent the following open letter to Senator Rubio.

Dear Senator Rubio,

Thank you for your March 29th reply to my February 3 correspondence.

The timing of your reply is particularly inauspicious given that since I wrote to you eight weeks ago, the United States and the world have been mired in the worst crisis any of us have faced in our lifetimes. A crisis made worse by the inept, self-serving, narcissistic leadership of Donald Trump.

I wonder now, eight weeks, later if you still feel your vote not to remove Donald Trump was “in the best interests of our country.”

I wonder now, eight weeks later, how much remorse you feel that when you had the opportunity to use the “most solemn constitutional power” you have in your possession as a member of Congress, “the removal of a duly elected president,” you decided instead to be a Trump enabler, disregarding the facts before you, resulting in giving this impossibly maladroit, inadequate, inexpert President the opportunity to bungle his way through this crisis.

I wonder now, eight weeks later, how you feel about your statement that you “rejected calls to pursue impeachment of President Obama,” and “instead of pursuing impeachment, we should use existing tools at our disposal to limit the amount of damage he’s doing to our economy and our national security, while you watch Donald Trump run amok damaging both our economy and our national security in a manner no one could have imagined .

On February 3, a mere eight weeks ago, I wrote the following to you:

“I write this because I am deeply embarrassed as a resident of Florida having you as one of my two representatives in the Senate of the United States, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s greatest deliberative body.’”

I was embarrassed in February. Eight weeks later, I am furious.

As more and more of your constituents get sick and die, as the constituents of your Senate colleagues who voted not to remove also get sick and die, as citizens around the country are losing their jobs, their incomes, their way of life, facing “their own last resort” due to the actions, inactions and incoherence of Donald Trump, I hope you, and your colleagues take a few minutes to reflect on what might have been if you had had the courage to do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Theodore Block