Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday where he will address an indictment consisting of 37 felony charges related to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House. Trump vehemently denies any wrongdoing in connection with the case.
In an interview with "CBS Mornings," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and author of the new book "Decades of Decadence: How Our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security, and Prosperity," expressed concern about the impact of the indictment on the country — and said it is "political in nature."
"When you bring an indictment like this, it's not done in isolation. It's not done in a vacuum. You gotta take a lot of things into account. There's no allegation that there was harm done to the, to the national security. There's no allegation that he sold it to a foreign power or that it was trafficked to somebody else or that anybody got access to it," said Rubio.
"You have to weigh the harm of that, or lack thereof, on the harm that this indictment does to the country. This is deeply divisive," he said.
He said prosecuting the likely GOP presidential nominee, who will run against an incumbent president, is alone "political in nature," and said there will be "certain harm."
This will put institutions into "tremendous crisis," he said.
"The judge will be attacked. The process will be attacked. The Department of Justice will be attacked. The prosecutor will be attacked," said Rubio.
While the senator said the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago "should not have been there," he said the indictment "is a separate thing."
"You're bringing an indictment that basically alleges no real damage to national security — not that it excuses it — versus what we're going to see now. We're going to subject this country to a divisive spectacle" at a time when we're dealing with major issues.
When asked about Trump's leadership qualities, Rubio expressed his belief that Trump could "do a better job" than President Biden as the next leader of the country. He also said he would personally choose Trump over Biden "in a heartbeat." However, he emphasized that the ultimate decision on leadership lies with the voters.
"People can debate about who they think it shouldn't be. Voters are going to make that decision. Okay, bottom line is that our republic will produce a president. Your policies are what we need to hold them to," Rubio said.