This smear of Marco Rubio by political mercenary Steve Schmidt is one of the grossest ad hominem attacks I’ve seen in a long time:

Rubio is the type of man who would have stayed in Cuba 🇨🇺 in 59. He is the type of ambitious young man who would have sensed new opportunities. He is the type of man who would have gladly held Castro’s coat if it helped him rise, just a little. @ProjectLincoln

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) August 18, 2020

As someone whose parents defected from the Soviet bloc, I find this kind of slander especially indefensible because it belittles the horrors of tyranny for cheap political points, and because it’s impossible to defend against. It would be tantamount to Rubio saying, “Steve Schmidt is the type of guy who would have been leading the mob in Kristallnacht because it might mean a few extra Reichsmarks in his pocket.”

Then again, we’re used this kind thing from The Lincoln Project, whose mission, it seems, is to outdo the worst tendencies of Donald Trump at every turn. But what excuse is there for a CNN “analyst” to concoct a counter-history in which Rubio, who has such a long record of speaking out about Chinese Communists that he has been personally sanctioned by Beijing, is a vicious Castro-regime apparatchik?

You Might Like

Rubio would have absolutely been a Castro crony. Likely a low-level member of the secret police, the guy people would come and report their neighbors to for not clapping loudly enough at the last Communist rally, then he’d take their rice rations not to “write them up”

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 18, 2020

Maybe someone will ask Brian Stelter.