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Sen. Rick Scott calls impeachment trial 'a complete waste of time'

Trump Impeachment
Posted at 8:04 AM, Feb 11, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-11 08:04:34-05

For nearly seven hours on Wednesday, the House impeachment managers featured clips of the violence from inside the US Capitol on Jan. 6, some of which had never been seen before by the public. The impeachment managers then interlaced those videos with a timeline of Trump’s words and actions from that day.

After viewing the videos, Florida Sen. Rick Scott told NBCNews the Senate trial is a “complete waste of time.”

"I'm disgusted that, you know, people think that they can do things like that and get away with it. I hope everybody that came into the Capitol and did the wrong thing gets prosecuted to the full extent of law," Scott said.

Asked if he thinks Trump bears any responsibility for the attack, Scott said, "Look, I've been clear that that I wish the president had said something faster when they broke into it, but, you know, I've watched what he said. He's never said when somebody should break in — [he] actually said that people should do this peacefully."

"This is a complete waste of time," he continued. "It's not doing anything to help American families, it's not helping people get jobs, it's not helping get the vaccine out ... it's vindictive."

Scott's words echo a video posted by Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday, before the trial began.

“There isn’t a single American that’s going to get a vaccine because of this impeachment trial. There isn’t a single American that’s going to find a job because of this impeachment trial. There isn’t a single thing that’s going to happen to make us safer from the threat of China from this impeachment trial,” said Rubio in the video he posted to Twitter.

Both Rubio and Scott faced criticism for not paying attention during the trial.

"Marco Rubio tried to stay busy with papers. So did Rick Scott of Florida,"Former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill told the Palm Beach Post.