Sen. Rubio will be on the spot when he talks to Comey about the Russia investigation. Can he get to the truth without hurting President Trump?
Senator Marco Rubio has been one of the most vocal voices in Washington wanting to know about Russia’s role in the 2016 United States Presidential elections. Sen. Rubio, sets on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where in 24 hours fired Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, is set to appear before the panel on Thursday, in a highly anticipated testimony that will be closely scrutinized for its potential to raise damaging questions about President Donald Trump.
Sen. Rubio, will be watched to see if he pushes Comey on if he was fired for his investigation of members of President Donald Trump admiration and campaign staffers. Or will Sen. Rubio, play the role of White House defender, attempting to discredit the former director of the FBI.
Last night, 48 hours before Sen. Rubio, and his panel will be grilling Comey, the junior senator from Florida was having dinner at the White House with President Trump. He was joined at dinner by another member of the committee, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), who has along with Rubio has been critical of Russian hacking.
According to The Washington Examiner, there were other Republican lawmakers eating dinner with Trump in the White House residence. The group included, Indiana Sen. Todd Young, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, Florida Rep. Francis Rooney and New York Rep. Lee Zeldin.
What brought Sen. Rubio and Comey together again this week was a New York Times report on a February memo in which Comey documented President Trump’s desire for the FBI to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump told Comey, according to notes read to a Times reporter by a Comey associate. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Rubio told Fox News that he and other members of Congress would want to hear from Comey directly. “We’re not going to base our opinion solely on a news article,” he said.
“We need to know the facts and, so, I’m not telling you that the news articles are wrong,” Rubio added. “I’m telling you that if you’re going to deal with something of this magnitude, shouldn’t we at least have facts before us before we establish firm positions about what we’re going to do next?”
So, Sen. Rubio will get his chance to talk directly to Comey about what went on between the former FBI Director and President Trump. Watch for Rubio to push Comey on his conversations with President Trump and how any of it may or may not affect the direction the committee goes in after Comey’s testimony is over.