Dozens gathered in front of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s Doral office on Thursday to protest his vote to acquit President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment.
The rally, organized by a group called Reject the Coverup, was part of a national protest event held across the country as a response to Wednesday's Senate vote.
Attendees expressed outrage at a statement Rubio posted on Medium in which he wrote, “Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office.”
Erik Ofengand, a volunteer organizer with MoveOn, said they wanted to send Rubio a message.
“We are fed up with the way he’s been treating our Constitution and basically giving a rubber stamp to this lawless president,” Ofengand said.
Protestors also expressed disapproval at Senate Republicans for voting in favor of hearing no new evidence.
“You can’t have a trial without any evidence,” Ofengand said.
Ofengand said they were also going to deliver hundreds of written statements from Floridians to Rubio.
Protester Tim Trout wrote a statement that would later be delivered to Rubio. He said it was like dozens of e-mails he had already sent to Rubio.
Trout said to vote to acquit Trump without hearing evidence is “un-American.”
Trout has been a registered voter with no party affiliation since 2006, and has voted for various Republicans and Democrats at the local and state level. He said that because of how the Republicans handled the impeachment trial he will never vote Republican again.
“This isn’t about party, this is about our democracy, and an active assault on our democratic institutions,” he said.
Stephanie Rupp expressed a similar sentiment. She said she used to like Rubio “very much” even though he’s a Republican and she’s a Democrat.
“To me there’s nothing wrong with being on the opposing side, we need that,” she said. “But then he went from moderate to completely off to the right, and there’s something that Trump has over our senators, that I just, I wish I could figure out what it is.”
Rupp said it was her American duty to be at the rally. “This is my country,” she said.
Two Trump supporters also attended the rally. They were further down the street from the protestors and declined to be interviewed.
Ofengand said MoveOn will be mobilizing voters for the upcoming election.
“We’re going to take our anger, and our outrage, and our passion and mobilize to vote the president and all the Senate Republicans that are up for re-election out of office in November,” Ofengand said.
According to a Reject the Coverup news release, there were more than 160 events hosted nationwide.
