Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he trusts the FBI's rank-and-file agents investigating the assassination attempt on former President Trump to do their job, but that he has reason to be skeptical of the bureau's leadership given its “history.”
In an interview on CBS News' “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan pressed Senator Rubio on whether he had confidence in the FBI and could assure the American people that the bureau was investigating assassination attempts, despite claims by President Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), that the FBI was not taking the assassination attempts seriously.
“I trust the FBI agents on the ground to do their jobs. I'm not sure what some of the agency's senior and middle managers will do,” Rubio said when asked a second time about the investigation, “because they have a history of being biased in the past.”
“I hope that's not true,” he added.
When first asked about whether Vance had questioned the credibility of “Vice President Harris' Department of Justice” and whether he trusted law enforcement to conduct a “full and fair investigation,” Rubio said he was confident “the people on the ground in law enforcement want that to happen.”
But he noted there is a “lack of trust in the institutions” and it's critical that law enforcement agencies release as much information related to their investigations to the public as quickly as possible.
“Just eight years ago, FBI agents were indicted for misconduct and fired in their handling of matters involving Donald Trump,” Rubio said. “So I think it's natural for people to have doubts and distrust.”
He pointed to a letter from several years ago from dozens of former intelligence officials who falsely dismissed reports about Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation, saying the episode was “deeply eroding” public trust.
“This is an example of how these institutions and our institutions will stand up against candidates they don't like.”
“It's eroding public trust in our institutions, it's eroding trust in government, in the media, in institutions within our government,” Rubio said. “That's why disclosure and openness about these investigations is so important, not just because we want to know, but to maintain trust in our institutions. And we're not having that. The second one is more important than the first, and, you know, we're not seeing it.”
