This F*cking Guy: Marco Rubio

Erin Ryan (0:02)

Welcome to the 49th episode of This Fucking Guy, the series where we spotlight one fucking guy making America worse and explore how they suck. I'm Erin Ryan, host of Crooked Media's Hysteria podcast.

Alex Wagner (0:12)

And I'm Alex Wagner, host of Crooked Media's Runaway Country, contributor to Pod Save America and MS Now Senior Political Analyst.

Erin Ryan (0:20)

Alex, I am so glad you're joining me for this episode. We're gonna walk a mile in the clown-sized floor shimes of Secretary of State National Security Advisor and General Executive Branch Task Rabbit, Marco Rubio.

Alex Wagner (0:32)

Erin, did you forget Viceroy of Venezuela? Never mind.

Erin Ryan (0:37)

This fucking guy is often painted as one of the more normal, insane members of Trump's inner circle, a steady hand on the wheel of the State Department, a rare member of the Trump administration who can sometimes seem cool, normal, and dare I say a little bit funny in the way that JD Vance tries and fails to be funny.

Alex Wagner (0:53)

Cool and normal are really hard adjectives to come by in this administration, but I guess if you don't show an unnatural interest in men's grooming or have a public record as a dog killer, then yeah, you might be considered normal.

Erin Ryan (1:07)

Rubio's name has even been bandied about as a possible Trump successor for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, but that's how he's dangerous. All the bombing he's not doing during speeches obscures all the bombing he wants to do to places with governments that aren't sufficiently right wing.

Alex Wagner (1:22)

I remember when Rubio was viewed by the mainstream media as one of the nuttiest people running for the Senate in 2010, that overton window is moving to the right so quickly it is busting down some load-bearing walls.

Erin Ryan (1:33)

Yeah, so let's dismantle whatever narrative Rubio, his fans and people who haven't been paying enough attention have bought into. Marco Antonio Rubio or in English, Mark Tony Blonde was born on May 28th, 1971 in Miami, Florida to Cuban immigrant parents. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna let Marco tell that story.

Marco Rubio (1:51)

I'm often asked what got me interested in politics. Well, it's hard to be apolitical when you grow up in a community of political exiles.

And I want to take just a moment to tell you about this part of my community that I'm so very proud to represent.

In January of 1959, a thug named Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, and countless Cubans were forced to flee and come here, many, most here to America. When they arrived, they were welcomed by the most compassionate people on all the earth. And they were told that in America, if you work hard and you play by all the rules, you can get ahead in life. And so that's precisely what they did. They took work anywhere they can find it. And they weren't always good jobs. But they worked hard and played by the rules. And as she had done for countless others before, America kept her promise to them.

Erin Ryan (2:42)

They played by the rules.

Alex Wagner (2:44)

That was little little Marco back in 2006, shortly before becoming the youngest ever speaker of Florida's House of Representatives. And it is a compelling little origin story. His parents fled Castro's Cuba to pursue the promise of the American dream. Given Marco's indirect understanding of the regime's brutality, he has moved, nay, called to fight against communism the world over and to preach the gospel of American freedom. Amen.

Erin Ryan (3:12)

Rubio's origin story was a frequent feature in interviews he did as a rising conservative star in the early aughts.

Jeanette Rubio (3:17)

Your father came here from Cuba.

Marco Rubio (3:19)

My parents both did, yes.

Jeanette Rubio (3:21)

Came here from Cuba.

Jeb Bush (3:21)

Your family, of course, they were exiles from Fidel Castro's Cuba after he took over.

Marco Rubio (3:26)

My parents and grandparents came here from Cuba in 58, 59

Alex Wagner (3:29)

Just one of those years.

Somewhere in there. Somewhere that it makes it true. As recently as October of 2011, Rubio's official Senate biography included the line, In 1971, Marco was born in Miami to Cuban-born parents who came to America following Fidel Castro's takeover.

Erin Ryan (3:47)

Except actually, that's not the truth, Marco. A September 2011 story in the Tampa Bay Times asserted that Marco's parents left Cuba in May 1956, three years before Castro seized power. Castro himself wasn't even in Cuba at the time. He was in Mexico.

Alex Wagner (4:02)

So they were actually fleeing Fulgencio Batista, a right-wing military dictator with close ties to the US business community and organized crime. As a point of fact, Erin, Castro's revolution didn't start until he returned to Cuba in December of 1956