With polls showing him in second place behind Donald Trump in the final days before Tuesday's presidential primary, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., showed no signs of lowering the stakes in the Sunshine State.
Rubio appeared on “The Kelly File” on Fox News late on Wednesday night and insisted he would win in Florida despite what the polls show.
Asked by Megyn Kelly if he was planning to drop out before Florida, Rubio said he had no plans of backing out of the race.
“No,” Rubio said. “What’s funny about that is I don’t know what’s happening in this campaign – every week somebody’s supposed to be dropping out. I am not dropping out. I’m fighting all the way through and we’re going to win Florida. We’re going to win Florida.”
Kelly turned to the polls and Rubio dismissed them, insisting he would prevail in Florida on Tuesday.
“First of all, those polls are not accurate,” Rubio said. “I’m telling you that from the understanding we have on the state and number two, it would be irrelevant. The fact of the matter is the only poll that counts is the one they’ll take on Tuesday when they count the votes that these people are going to cast and we’re going to win in Florida.”
Still, Rubio conceded his personal attacks against Trump -- which led to a memorable exchange over “small hands” in last week’s debate -- were a mistake.
“I’d do it differently,” Rubio said. “I really would. The reason - my kids were embarrassed by it. My wife didn’t like it. I don’t think it reflects good. That’s not who I am. That’s not what my campaign is going to be about or will ever be about again. I’d do it differently – on the personal stuff. I’m not telling you he didn’t deserve it, but that’s not who I am and that’s not what I want to be. Honestly, I want to be a good example. I want my kids to be proud of me and I don’t think it reflected well on my faith. And so I felt bad about that.”
Kelly noted that former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., had ruled out backing Trump and there were reports out that he was meeting with the other Republican hopefuls.
Rubio confirmed that he met with Bush and said he wanted the former Florida governor’s support.
After poor showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Bush ended his bid for the Republican nomination last month.
“Not only did I meet with him, I talked to him several times since the end of the campaign and he’s my friend,” Rubio said about Bush. “We’ll always be friends. Even in the time that he was in the race I never said anything negative about him. I have tremendous respect and admiration for him I don’t discuss private conversations of course, but let me just say I think he is a phenomenal person probably the greatest governor in Florida’s history – Jeb Bush.
“I’d love to have his support and I don’t know if he is even going to support anyone and I would be presumptuous to say it would be me,” Rubio added. “It was a meeting about the way two people that’ve known each other for 20 years would meet and talk. I’ve known him for that long and I don’t want to go into any details of personal conversations, nothing mysterious, I just don’t think it’s good policy to discuss personal conversations in front of 5 million people.”
When asked about Bush not backing Trump, Rubio said, “I think most Republicans don’t want Donald Trump to win the nomination.”
Kelly pointed to reports that Rubio could throw his support to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and end up on a “unity ticket” to take on Trump. Rubio dismissed the possibility.
“I haven’t talked to anybody about that. I’m not interested in that,” Rubio said. “That’s the kind of drama that make it interesting in TV to speculate about. Those kinds of things rarely work. I can just tell you I’m a candidate for president.
“I’m focused on being the president of the United States and that’s my goal and that’s Ted’s goal too," Rubio added. "At some point, we’re all going to team up. We’re all going to be on the same team I hope.”
Rubio dispelled rumors of reports he would be ending his campaign soon.
“That is 100 percent categorically false,” Rubio said. “I have never discussed dropping out with anyone on my team or anyone on Planet Earth – or anyone on any other planet for that matter.”
Rubio did, however, concede it was all on the line in Florida, which holds a winner-take-all primary on Tuesday.
“This campaign is always going to come down to this,” Rubio said. “The nominee has to win Florida. You can’t be the Republican nominee if you don’t win Florida.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
