Would Marco Rubio consider being Donald Trump's running mate?
Sen. Marco Rubio on Monday took his name out of the running to be Donald Trump's vice presidential pick, saying that he instead wants to focus on Florida in his remaining months in the Capitol.
"He will be best served by a running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign. As such, I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for Vice President," the Florida senator and former GOP presidential candidate wrote in a post on Facebook.
Rubio also made it clear that he won't be giving his full-throated support to Trump any time soon, saying in the post that while Republican voters "have chosen Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, my previously stated concerns and reservations about his campaign and concern with many of his policies remain unchanged."
Instead, Rubio said he will focus on "representing the people of Florida, retaining a conservative majority and electing principled conservatives across the country."
The senator dropped out of the 2016 presidential race in mid-March after losing Florida in its winner-take-all primary. Rubio had attempted to position himself as the best establishment candidate to defeat Trump, but he engaged in personal attacks with Trump, now the presumptive nominee, toward the end of his campaign. He said Trump has "small hands" and the "worst spray tan in America."
Rubio, who took office in 2011, plans to retire from Congress at the end of the year. In his first comments after he suspended his campaign, Rubio warned that if Trump won the GOP nomination, it would "fracture the party and be damaging to the conservative movement."
He also said, "I'm not going to be anybody's vice president" and said he doesn't plan to run for governor of Florida either. Instead, he said he looks forward to being a private citizen next January.
His statement on Monday comes after a slew of top Republicans said either that they can't support Trump at all or they aren't ready to endorse him. Speaker Paul Ryan said last week he wasn't ready yet to back him while former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush said they won't be endorsing Trump. 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who launched an effort to warn Republican voters that Trump is "a phony, a fraud" and "unfit" to be president, said he plans to skip the Republican National Convention this July.
