JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) drew a stark contrast between himself and his potential Democrat Senate challenger Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) — whom he noted has voted alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “100 percent of the time” in the House — on Monday during a press conference, where 55 Florida sheriffs endorsed his reelection campaign.
Flanked by several law enforcement officers who offered the Florida senator their endorsement, Rubio outlined what is at stake in the upcoming midterm election, as “Chuck Schumer’s hand-picked candidate” Val Demings has aligned herself with the effort to call into question the work law enforcement is doing, despite her own 27-year tenure serving in law enforcement.
“What’s at stake with law and order is what’s at stake broadly. When you talk about these Senate races, it’s not just about who you’re electing to the Senate. It’s whose lead will they follow when they get to Washington?” he said, noting the power struggle in the Senate.
“Chuck Schumer, frankly is one vote away. He just needs one — if I were not in this position and one of my opponents like Val Demings was, you’d never hear the name Joe Manchin. You never would have heard the name Kyrsten Sinema, because Chuck Schumer would have 51 votes, and with those 51 votes, he can pass anything he wants, which includes codifying socialism in our laws through what they called Build Back Better,” Rubio said, noting he called it “Build Back Socialist.”
He continued:
By codifying into law the changes we’ve talked about here today. Police officers across this county and law enforcement officials would be getting sued in court. So every time they’re out there responding to a call two things are on their mind. Am I going to make it? Am I going to live? And am I going to get sued afterwards? And I have to make that decision in a millisecond. So that would become the law in this country. We would basically have a county that codifies open borders where you can come here illegally and stay without any consequence. And the list goes on.
Rubio said Schumer ultimately wants Demings as the next senator because she has “voted with Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the time in the House.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP)
“100 percent of the time. If you want Nancy Pelosi to be your next U.S. senator, you have a candidate running that’s perfect. But I think most people don’t want that here in this state,” he said. “And that’s why he picked her.”
“She voted with Pelosi 100 percent of the time, and he’s counting on her voting with him 100 percent of the time. And that will dramatically change not just our country but our federal government in ways that might be irreversible,” he warned.
Speaking at a “Flip Florida Blue” breakfast in August, Demings, whom Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd noted voted for the House-passed legislation that would have made it easier to prosecute cops for doing their jobs and putting “billions upon billions of taxpayer costs” on communities for lawsuits filed against officers, proclaimed that Democrats are the “only firewall between our democracy, the will of the people, and those who say they are Americans, those who say they believe in a democracy but will not fight for it.”
That same month, Rubio released a video blasting Demings and her alignment with the “socialist squad” members, voting with them almost 100 percent of the time: