Lawrence O’Donnell Exposes Marco Rubio’s Cheap Political Stunt On GOP Tax Scam

The Republican tax scam was supposedly at risk this week after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he might vote no unless the child tax credit was expanded, but Lawrence O’Donnell made a Saturday appearance on MSNBC to expose the senator’s move for what it was: a cheap political stunt.

On AM Joy, O’Donnell said there was never a chance that Rubio was going to vote no. He just wanted to get attention and take credit for something that Republicans “needed to do anyway.”

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In just 45 seconds, the MSNBC host exposed Rubio’s game-playing:

The game in the Senate especially when it’s a close vote and by the way, Marco Rubio played this game masterfully and every other Republican senator hates him for it. Which is to be, it’s to be the last man standing on something you know you’re going to vote for. Everybody else knows you’re going to vote for, really. And you’re pulling a stunt to get attention to the thing you got in the end, which was this increase in the child tax credit. Which is temporary. And of course, he never mentions that. And it was something that they kind of needed to do, anyway, after they had given even bigger tax breaks to the rich in the final version of this bill. They were looking, actually, for something like this – where can we squeeze in a tiny giveaway, that goes to another income group, other than the rich? So Rubio was the one who played that, so he will now get credit for that.

It may have been a smart political play by Rubio, as O’Donnell said, but it was also a transparent attempt by the lightweight senator to grab attention and give off the appearance that he isn’t a Trump puppet, before doing what he was always going to do: vote yes on the bill.

The fact that Republicans need to play these games in order to force through this monstrosity proves that they are selling the American people a bill of goods.

Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and the GOP Congress don’t care about the child tax credit or helping lower and middle-class Americans. They will simply say and do whatever it takes to ram through this massive Christmas present to the wealthiest corporations and individuals.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.