Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday he plans to follow through on his pledge to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee, though he also said his role during the upcoming campaign season might focus more on working on behalf of down-ballot candidates.
“I [have] signed a pledge that said I’d support the Republican nominee, and I intend to continue to do that,” Mr. Rubio said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
“Here’s the situation that we’re in: on the one hand, I don’t want Hillary Clinton to be the president of the United States — I don’t want her to win this election,” Mr. Rubio said. “On the other hand, as I said, I have well-defined differences with the presumptive nominee of the Republican party.”
“I intend to live up to the pledge that we made, but that said, these concerns that I have about policy, they remain and they’re there,” he said.
Mr. Rubio suspended his own presidential campaign after presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump scored a big win in Florida on March 15.
“That doesn’t mean that Donald needs to change his positions in order to get my support or what have you,” Mr. Rubio said. “As I said earlier today, I think he should be true to what he believes in and continue to campaign on those things and make his case to the American people.”
Mr. Rubio was asked about a statement he made earlier in the year about the prospect of turning over the United States nuclear codes to an “erratic” individual in Mr. Trump.
“Here’s what I’m not going to do over the next six months, is sit there and just be taking shots at him,” Mr. Rubio said. “I don’t view my role over the next six months to just sit here and level charges against him.”
“I know what I said during the campaign. I enunciated those things repeatedly, and voters chose a different direction,” he said. “I stand by the things that I said, but I’m not going to sit here now and become his chief critic over the next six months because he deserves the opportunity to go forward and make his argument and try to win.”
Mr. Rubio said Tuesday he thinks one of the best ways he can support the conservative cause is to work on behalf of Republican U.S. Senate candidates or other candidates who share his views.
“I think Donald would be best served by having people out there campaigning on his behalf as surrogates, as his running mate, who more fully embrace some of the things [he’s] stood for,” he said.
On Monday, Mr. Rubio had said in a Facebook post that he doesn’t want to be considered for vice president.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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