Marco Rubio

High school students just destroyed Florida Republican and top NRA cash recipient Marco Rubio over gun issues on CNN’s Wednesday night town hall, leaving Rubio trying to pretend the damage wasn’t as bad as any viewer could see it was:

x Banning all semi-auto weapons may have been popular with the audience at #CNNTownHall, but it is a position well outside the mainstream https://t.co/18rMDwEfGs — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 22, 2018

Well outside the mainstream, huh? How about if Rubio personally calls the 67 percent of people who support an assault weapons ban according to the latest Quinnipiac poll and tells them they’re well outside the mainstream.

Or, as Rubio said when high school junior Cameron Kasky had him on the ropes about his NRA money:

"The influence of these groups comes not from money," the Florida Republican said at CNN's town hall "Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action" on Wednesday night in Sunrise, Florida. "The influence comes from the millions of people that agree with the agenda, the millions of Americans that support the NRA."

A lot more people support expanded background checks and mandatory waiting periods and an assault weapons ban—67 percent is a lot but support for those other policies is even higher—than support the NRA, and yet Rubio is standing with the NRA. It may not be solely about the $3 million, but it’s for damn sure not about which policies a majority of voters support, either.