The evolution of Marco Rubio
Here & Now Anytime
NPR
4.1 • 953 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
And, in a sharp and rare rebuke of President Trump, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell slammed the administration’s $1.776 billion so-called 'anti-weaponization' fund, calling it "utterly stupid" and "morally wrong." Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer explains McConnell’s reaction and why it should be viewed through the lens of McConnell's decision not to convict Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:07.0 | He wants to be a part of the Trump world, and he wants to send the message, it seems from my point of view at least, to the MAGA base that he is one of them. |
| 0:17.7 | The Political Odyssey of Marco Rubio. It's Wednesday, May 27th, and this is |
| 0:24.3 | here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, every story about the Republican Party is a story about Trump. |
| 0:42.4 | Today, we're looking at some of the latest developments in the president's love-hate relationship with his fellow Republicans. |
| 0:49.7 | Some Republican congressmen are bucking Trump on his plan to compensate people he says were unfairly treated by the Biden administration. |
| 0:58.3 | But does it really mean anything coming from the same people who shielded Trump from responsibility for the January 6th riot and then helped him get back into office? |
| 1:07.7 | We'll get to that story in a few minutes. |
| 1:10.1 | But first, another prominent Republican whose opinion of Trump has changed over the years, |
| 1:17.1 | Marco Rubio is the Secretary of State. |
| 1:19.9 | He's also acting national security advisor. |
| 1:22.8 | For a while, he was head of USAID and acting National Archivist. |
| 1:31.5 | That's a lot of Trump administration cred for a guy who 10 years ago was calling Trump a con man. But Rubio's about face on the president and his family's colorful biography |
| 1:39.4 | tell us a lot about the direction of the Republican Party and about the politician who might be angling |
| 1:46.2 | to succeed Trump in the White House. Manuel Roig Franzio wrote a book in 2012 called The Rise of |
| 1:53.5 | Marco Rubio, and he stopped by this week for this conversation with Indira Lakshmanan. |
| 1:58.6 | So Manuel, you dug into Rubio's life story and you've followed his career since before he ran for president in 2016. |
| 2:06.1 | A decade ago, it would have been hard to imagine Rubio being such a close advisor to Trump and being so trusted by him from all accounts. |
| 2:14.7 | Let's hear what Rubio had to say then about then candidate Trump on CBS News in 2016. |
| 2:22.2 | Donald Trump has portrayed himself now consistently as fighting for the working people, and he has a record of sticking it to working people for 35 years. |
| 2:30.1 | Rubio also called Trump a con artist, while the president derided him as Lil Marco and Robot Rubio. |
| 2:37.1 | That's very different from how Rubio talks about the president today or how Trump speaks about Rubio. |
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