Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is running for re-election, is breaking with Donald Trump over making the WikiLeaks emails a campaign issue, saying Republicans should not play politics with the hacked emails.
“As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process, and I will not indulge it,” Mr. Rubio told ABC news. “Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today, it is the Democrats. Tomorrow, it could be us.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has been touting information from the WikiLeaks email dumps at rallies as proof that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is a shady and corrupt politician.
Three weeks out from Election Day, Mr. Rubio appears to be in better shape than Mr. Trump in Florida.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Mrs. Clinton is leading Mr. Trump by more than 3 percentage points in Florida, while Mr. Rubio is leading Mr. Murphy by 4 percentage points.
Mr. Rubio, who is running against Rep. Patrick Murphy, delivered a lukewarm endorsement of Mr. Trump after losing to him in the GOP presidential primary — including in the Florida primary.
Mr. Rubio has continued to support Mr. Trump following the release of video and audio recordings from 2005 in which he is heard bragging about groping women, while other Republicans have rescinded their support.
Mr. Trump has dismissed the caught-on-tape remarks as locker room talk, and he said that the women that have since come out to accuse him of past sexual misconduct are liars.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.