Some Republicans are having a grand old time spreading conspiracy theories about the Iowa Democratic Party's simple but massive problem of human error in Monday night's caucuses, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham filling in any gaps Russian bots might have left on Twitter. Then you have Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, doing another total self-own.
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"Think #IowaCaucus meltdown is bad?" he tweeted. "Imagine very close Presidential election. Russian or Chinese hackers tamper with preliminary reporting system in key counties. When the official results begin to be tabulated it shows a different winner than the preliminary results online." Kind of like what happened in 2016 in Florida, where Russians hacked into local election offices. You'd think that would make Rubio a regular champion of election security legislation. You’d think that would make Rubio use whatever influence he has as one of 53 Republicans in the majority to get some kind of election protection legislation to the floor of the Senate. You'd think he would break with a president who regularly makes public pronouncements inviting foreign interference in our elections.
You'd think wrong. There are election security bills from the House sitting on Mitch McConnell's desk right now—have been for months. A Senate bill that Rubio himself sponsored with Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen is also in McConnell purgatory, being blocked by Rubio's own Republican colleagues on McConnell's marching orders.
Which Rubio, along with 51 other Senate Republicans, is going merrily along with it. While their own states' systems could be vulnerable to Russian hacking. While their impeached president is out in public blatantly soliciting the interference of foreign adversaries in the next election.