Marco Rubio zeroes in on Russia — not Obama – By Andreew Desiderio (Politico) / May 27 2020
The new Senate Intelligence Committee chairman has no interest in fighting Trump’s election-year battles.
Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill are pushing aggressive new investigations targeting the president’s political opponents. Marco Rubio isn’t joining the fray.
As Rubio assumes the acting chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Florida Republican is distancing himself from a GOP-led probe targeting Hunter Biden. He has declined to embrace Trump’s “Obamagate” claims. And he is warning the Republicans spearheading the Biden investigation not to promote Russian disinformation in the process.
“I’m not going to accuse any member who believes that they are exercising oversight to be colluding with a foreign power,” Rubio said in an interview last week. “I will say to you that I think it’s pretty clear that the Russians are constantly pursuing narratives that they believe will drive conflict in our politics and divide us against each other.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee has historically been a bipartisan one, but Rubio is taking over at a time when partisan tensions in the Senate are perhaps higher than they have ever been, which may bring drawbacks to the influential perch.
Trump is actively encouraging Republicans to join his election-year revenge play against those who spearheaded investigations that ensnared him, his associates and his presidential campaign. Rubio, on the other hand, appears more concerned about Russian interference in the next presidential election — a sensitive subject for Trump, who bristles at any mention of Moscow swaying American elections.
Continue to article: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/27/marco-rubio-russia-obama-282878
