Rubio: Trump asking China about Biden investigation 'not a real request'
WASHINGTON— Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Friday that President Donald Trump publicly announcing that China should look into former Vice President Joe Biden was not a “real request."
Rubio, who ran the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 against Trump, told reporters on Friday that he didn’t know Trump’s comments were a “real request or him just needling the press, knowing that you guys were gonna get outraged by it. He's pretty good at getting everybody fired up, and he's been doing it for a while now, and the media responded right on task."
A reporter followed up that Rubio is “one of the loudest critics of China and its human rights abuses. I mean, is it OK for (Trump) to ask, to say that?"
This morning in the Florida Keys, @marcorubio was asked about the President calling on China to investigate @JoeBiden - see his answer 👇@CBSMiami @MiamiHerald @alextdaugherty @MarcACaputo @PatriciaMazzei pic.twitter.com/3t1nTMWixn
— Jim DeFede (@DeFede) October 4, 2019
Rubio responded, "I don't think it's a real request, again, I think he did it to gig you guys. I think he did to provoke you to ask me and others, and get outraged by it."
“Like I said, he plays it like a violin and everybody falls right into it. It’s not a real request,” he concluded.
On the White House South Lawn Thursday, Trump told reporters, "By the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine," referencing his request that Ukraine also look into Biden.
Rubio declined to say whether he supported the impeachment inquiry into Trump, saying, "Why don't we wait for all the information to come forward before people start making decisions or pronouncements, one way or another?”
"Rather than just reflexively circling the wagons or rushing to judgement, how about waiting for everything to come forward, looking at it all, and then coming to judgement," the Florida senator continued.
Rubio’s statement on impeachment is considerably more measured than many of his GOP colleagues who have rushed to the president’s defense.
However, Rubio’s comments regarding China are a stark contrast to Sen. Mitt Romney, who spoke out against Trump Friday, calling the President’s comments on China “wrong and appalling.”
By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019
"When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated," Romney stated.
Thursday night, CNN reported that phone conversations between Trump and President Xi of China included Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s political prospects, and were stored in the same highly-secured electronic system used to hold the phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the center of a whistleblower complaint against President Trump.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump asking China to launch Biden investigation not a real request, Rubio says