Marco Rubio, while confirming his decision to run for reelection to the Senate, continued to make known his issues with Donald Trump as he readies to run with his former opponent at the top of the ticket.
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Rubio said a Trump presidency is “worrisome” to him “in many ways,” noting his past comments of Trump prior to his loss in the Florida primary in March.
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A critic of the Senate during his campaign bid, in announcing his re-election effort, Rubio tried to portray the institution as an important check on the presidency during an election year in which he said there were no good choices.
“No matter who’s elected president, there’s reason to worry,” he said. “If it’s Hillary Clinton, you know we’re going to have four more years of the same failed economic policies, four more years of the same failed foreign policy. The prospect of a Trump presidency is also worrisome to me in many ways. It’s no secret that I have significant disagreements with Donald.”
He added, “I think that the point that really drove me to change my mind is that as we enter this kind of new chapter in our history here is, there’s another role the Senate plays that I think can be really important in the years to come. And that’s the power given to it in the Constitution to act as a check and balance on the excess of the president. It’s even more important given the fact that control of the Senate could very well come down to what happens in the Florida race.”
Toward the end of the race, Rubio panned Trump as a “con artist,” questioned the size of his genitalia and argued that he was unqualified to gain access to the nation’s nuclear codes. Since ending his campaign, Rubio has said that he will vote for Trump, incurring a mountain of criticism given his past statements.
Wednesday’s announcement by the Florida senator came after a number of dominos fell leading up to his decision, including Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera greenlighting a bid and saying that he would suspend his campaign if Rubio, a longtime friend, wanted to run for re-election. Reps. David Jolly and Ron DeSantis both indicated that they would run for reelection to the House of Representatives instead, with Jolly officially making the move last week.
Rubio, however, does have roadblocks to his reelection. Businessman Carlos Beruff, who has poured $4 million into his own senate campaign thus far, announced that he will remain in the race and spend upwards of $15 million more on the contest to dethrone the Miami-based senator. If he gets passed the primary, Rubio will likely face Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, who attacked him over the weekend as the “most homophobic” senator in the country — teasing a rough general election contest.
