Rubio: I'll hold my nose and vote for Trump

Marco Rubio made clear on Tuesday that he has grave reservations about Donald Trump’s view of the world.

But he promised to support him anyway, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that he will stand by his pledge to back the Republican nominee.


“I’m not voting for Hillary Clinton,” Rubio said. “I’m not throwing away my vote.”

As for whether he will attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in two months, the outgoing Florida senator, who dropped his presidential bid after losing his home state to Trump in March, is still undecided. But regardless of what he decides to do, he insisted a certain Manhattan billionaire will not factor into the decision.

“I don’t know,” Rubio told Tapper when asked whether he would attend, suggesting that he might “if there’s a role for me to play.”

Alluding to the fact that he will still have delegates going to Cleveland as supporters — 166 of them, by The Associated Press’ count — Rubio called it “an opportunity to kind of get together with people and be a part of that.”

“I haven’t made that decision yet. But it wouldn’t be because of Donald Trump or in spite of Donald Trump,” he said. “It would be primarily because I’ve gone to the last three conventions, I’m an elected Republican at a national level. And so I haven’t made that decision yet. But I’m open to going.”

Rubio, who recently returned from a trip to Iraq, Qatar and Turkey, told Tapper he heard curiosity from Muslim soldiers and Muslim leaders talking about Trump.

“One of the things that I will say and this is now that you’re the nominee of the party, I would say there’s responsibility behind these words and these statements. They’re no longer just the statements of one out of 17 candidates or even the leader in the polls,” Rubio said. “They are the statements of one of two people who are going to be the next president of the United States.”

Rubio then volunteered that his “sense” is that Trump “either has or will in time will accept the gravity of that.”

“I hope he will. Because it does have an impact on what is happening around the world,” he said. Rubio added that during the trip he heard curiosity, but not concerns “about the direction — people wanting to know what’s going to happen.”

Earlier in the day, Rubio told a crowd at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., that he had serious questions about Trump’s suitability to lead the United States abroad.

Asked what Trump could say that would reassure him about his ability to handle the complex foreign policy challenges like the ongoing conflict in Syria, the fight against the Islamic State, or the role of Iran in the Middle East, Rubio demurred.

“As I’ve said before, my policy differences and reservations about Donald’s campaign are well-established. I’ve said them often, and I stand by those. Those remain, and I hope they’ll be addressed, but those remain,” Rubio said. “That said, I don’t view myself as a guy who’s going to sit here for the next six months taking shots at him. People know where I stand. They know how I feel. They know what our differences are.”

While Trump is the presumptive nominee and Rubio said he respects and accepts that fact, the Florida senator said that would not “change the reservations I have about his campaign or about some of the policies that he’s established.”

“But I’m not insisting he change anything. He needs to be true to whoever he is,” Rubio clarified. “If that’s the things he believes in, then he’ll have a chance to make that argument to the American people. I’m going to focus on making the arguments I think are important for the country and right for our future and looking forward to supporting candidates around the country, especially for federal office, that share those views.”

