Is Marco Rubio the GOP's answer for 'NEVER TRUMP' Conservatives in 2028?

[0:00] Republican or Democrat, the housing bill is a critical piece of legislation. It's going to [0:04] help a lot of people to buy homes that they otherwise could not purchase. And yet the [0:09] president of the United States remains hung up on one of the poisons that he injected into the [0:14] system years ago, corrupt elections, and he can't get over it. And the damage that that has done [0:22] to this country is nearly epidemic. I mean, his messaging is so bad. When he talks about [0:29] housing affordability, sometimes he says, I don't want prices to come down because [0:33] that's going to hurt homeowners, right? And then he is, as we're talking, obsessed with [0:38] the voting bill. But it's really about the 2020 election, which he continues to insist [0:44] was stolen. And I think if you're an everyday American out there, if you're a voter who's [0:50] struggling to pay the bills, if you can't afford to buy a house, it's pretty clear there's a president [0:55] who's much more concerned about his personal legacy and about some affront to him that happened [1:00] four or five years ago, six years ago, than he is about helping you, helping Joe Sixpack out there [1:09] who's trying to get by. And this is the opposite of what any strategist would advise a politician to do. [1:16] Well, a number of things. First of all, he said to Speaker Mike Johnson a while back that no one [1:23] gives a bleep about housing. So this is not something that's just a fleeting thought. [1:30] And about personal legacy versus winning elections, I'm sorry, this does not seem like a president [1:38] who is at all concerned about the midterms. And you have to wonder why. You have to wonder, [1:45] when you were saying things that are basically malpractice in the months leading up to the [1:50] midterms, you have to wonder why, especially given other precedents that this president has set. [1:57] And Matt, your debut column for notice is entitled, I'm a never Trump conservative who used to love [2:04] Marco Rubio. Should I still believe in him? You write in part this, the possibility that this [2:11] sad detour in American politics could end with a president Rubio offers at least on the surface, [2:17] a tiny bit of hope. But then there's the uncomfortable part. Being a never Trump conservative [2:22] has always involved two facet. One is ideological and abiding support for mainstream conservative [2:28] policy. The other is moral and opposition to a vulgar, incompetent and chaotic authoritarian who [2:35] lacks the character and temperament to be president. Rubio once seemed to satisfy both commitments. [2:42] Today, however, he is one of Trump's top deputies with all the baggage that entails. It's really a [2:49] catch-22. Any Republican who remained opposed to Trump has already been purged, which means the only [2:56] viable Republicans have, to varying degrees, been tainted. Matt, I venture to say that it's thinking [3:06] too far ahead. At this moment, there's a lot happening at the same time. We're going to be having [3:12] a conversation in the next hour about America at 250, some of the positives, but also some of the [3:17] negatives. I mean, there's a real backslide happening here. And we may see that bear out in [3:24] the midterm elections. That's right, Mika. Well, I write several of these columns a week, [3:30] and my next one will be on America 250, I think. But look, I came to D.C. recently, took some videos, [3:37] some pictures of the reflecting pool, the Kennedy Center. And I started meeting with my old friends. [3:42] These are people who were still, you know, they don't really like Donald Trump that much, [3:46] but they're still part of the Republican Party, part of the conservative movement. [3:49] And they just would volunteer. Hey, they're excited about Marco Rubio, right? And so this [3:54] is pretty relevant. And I have to tell you, you know, Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona the other [3:59] day, said if Marco Rubio is the Republican nominee, we're in trouble. According to the book Regime [4:05] Change, Donald Trump has been asking, I think it was Rupert Murdoch, do you like Rubio or do you [4:12] like Vance? And he said, he implied that Rubio, he sort of gushed about Rubio. So this is something [4:18] we're going to have to confront at some point. And on one hand, if you had told me after all of the [4:25] mess and the chaos of Donald Trump, at the end of it, we're going to get Marco Rubio, the guy that I [4:31] wanted a decade ago anyway. Like on one hand, that's a really positive thing. I mean, we could [4:37] do a lot worse. We could have, I don't know, Candace Owens or something, right? So on one hand, [4:41] this is maybe a small glimmer of hope. On the other hand, you know, can we rehabilitate any of [4:49] these guys? Etched into my brain is that image of Marco Rubio sitting there on the couch while J.D. [4:55] Vance and Donald Trump humiliated and insulted Ukrainian President Zelensky. And so I think [5:04] if you're a never Trump conservative, maybe in 2026, maybe you vote Democrat. But we just, [5:11] we've seen what's happening with the Democratic Party. It seems like it's trending in a leftward [5:15] direction. At some point, those of us who still consider ourselves to be never Trump conservatives, [5:21] we're going to be faced with a choice. Can we rehabilitate someone like Rubio or has he been [5:28] corrupted by the last decade? And Matt, you write in the piece that the best case scenario from your [5:34] point of view and from the point of view of conservatives is that Marco Rubio actually [5:38] still in there somewhere is who he was a decade ago, that he's been playing a part or saying and [5:44] doing the things he's had to do to remain viable, to become secretary of state, to put him in itself in [5:49] a position for this kind of comeback that you're talking about here. The question will be, I guess, [5:53] as you say, though, Vance, Rubio, or potentially an outsider, somebody else like you just mentioned, [5:59] what's your sense, forget the president for a moment, but among conservatives about who they [6:04] would prefer? Is it Rubio or is it Vance? Well, I think that Marco Rubio is having a great moment [6:12] right now. If you'd asked me this in December, I think J.D. Vance had a really good first year of the [6:18] Trump second term. But Marco Rubio has really emerged. I think he's just more prepared, [6:24] more eloquent. Donald Trump seems to have, for now, and he's fickle, but for now have taken a [6:30] liking to him. So we are having a Rubio moment. There are going to be some people on the right [6:37] who will never accept him. But frankly, some of those people are now upset at Donald Trump as well [6:42] over the Iran war. I think Rubio has really been pretty careful as it pertains to this war. He's, [6:49] I think he's been responsible. He's not coming off as too hawkish, but he's also not criticizing [6:54] the president. I think it's ironically more likely that J.D. Vance gets sort of tagged and blamed for [7:01] some of the mess of this Iran war. So Rubio is really handling himself very well. I, you know, [7:07] assuming Donald Trump actually goes off into that good night at some point, rides off into the [7:12] sunset, there's going to be a major, I think, battle for this Republican nomination. And with [7:20] Rubio, we're never going to go back to John McCain, Mitt Romney, like, and nor should we. But with Rubio, [7:26] I think there's a chance that we can have maybe something of a hybrid where those of us who have [7:33] been in the wilderness, we've been homeless now for a decade, could maybe finally come home. [7:38] Yeah. But we can't do it if he's going to be out there saying things like the 2020 election was [7:44] stolen. If he, we need somebody who's going to embrace the rule of law. They don't have to be Ronald [7:49] Reagan. Ronald Reagan's not walking through that door again. But, but they need to be someone who has [7:54] honor and integrity and just believes in the constitution at bare minimum.