'You sir, have no shame': Marco Rubio is getting torn apart for his phony attack on Fauci and 'elites'

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has lambasted by countless Twitter users following a December 27 tweet in which he attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci for "distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity" and described him as one of the people who lives "in elite bubbles." Journalist Christian Schneider analyzes that tweet in an article published this week by the conservative website The Bulwark, and as Schneider sees it, Rubio's tweet speaks volumes about the 49-year-old Republican's views on GOP voters.

"In the course of his young political career," Schneider writes, "Marco Rubio has been a Tea Partier, a reformicon, and a neoconservative. Now, he's auditioning for the role of MAGA Fan #7 by trying to paint Anthony Fauci as the real villain of the pandemic. His strategy seems to be: dazzle the Trumpenproletariat so completely that they adopt him as their new king. It's adorable — the political equivalent of leaving your husband in hopes of catching the eye of pharma bro Martin Shkreli."

The Miami-born Rubio posted:

Schneider finds the fake "anti-elitist" tone of Rubio's tweet to be ironic in light of the fact that the 49-year-old senator received a COVID-19 vaccine on December 19 — long before Americans who lack his connections were able to receive them.

"Of course, being 'elite' is really a state of mind," Schneider writes. "If you went to the University of Pennsylvania and live in a private, oceanside, gated club, you're not elite. If you went to Harvard and own a tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, you're not elite either. And if you're a healthy 49-year-old with no risk-factors who jumps to the head of the COVID vaccine line just because you're a U.S. senator?"

During the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Rubio often expressed his contempt for Trump. But now, Schneider observes, he is full MAGA.

Schneider explains, "For guys like Rubio…. this is all just kabuki theater. They belong to a party that is populated by people who hate 'elites.' So, they have to hate 'elites' too. And since the definition of who or what is 'elite' is infinitely elastic, Rubio tries to butch up whenever there's a clear target. And since Donald Trump hates Anthony Fauci, then Fauci is, ipso facto, an elite. Period, the end. Nothing else matters."

According to Schneider, Rubio's December 27 tweet — as ridiculous as it was — serves a useful purpose: trying to show MAGA voters that they have his support.

"Rubio isn't doing this because he's stupid," Schneider writes. "He's doing it because he's an ambitious coward desperate to earn the approval of a deranged man who still has a chokehold on the Republican Party. And it only serves to sow distrust among the segment of the population which already views scientific expertise as a marker of the evil 'elites.'"

Schneider goes on to say, "Trying to undercut Fauci is simply a tactic meant to appeal to the most deranged voting bloc of the GOP — the QAnon-friendly conspiracy theorists who bought into the 'Plandemic' hoax that suggested Fauci had created the coronavirus as a money-making scheme. And when Rubio beats up on Fauci, what he's really doing is signaling that he thinks those people are in charge of his party."