- Rubio’s been too busy to talk to Trump – and “absolutely will not” be his VP
Despite recent media reports characterizing Sen. Marco Rubio as “warming” to Donald Trump, sources close to the Florida Senator were adamant that he was not interested in being Trump’s running mate.
On Friday, Heat Street spoke to multiple senior advisers, members of Rubio’s inner circle who have been in direct contact with him.
“Absolutely false,” said one Rubio adviser. “He absolutely will not be Trump’s Vice President.”
That sentiment was echoed by two other sources close to Rubio, who confirmed to Heat Street that Rubio was not considering joining Trump’s ticket. “That’s never happening,” said one. Another referenced the likelihood of snowballs in hell, and expressed frustration at the inaccurate stories, referencing how Rubio’s comments in late April about a contested convention had been taken out of context. “He was just speaking analytically then,” and not saying he opposed a contested convention, “and he’s not joining with Trump.”
Speculation about who Trump would pick as a vice president has been running rampant since Trump won the Indiana primaries and Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich, his last two remaining rivals, suspended their campaigns.
Speaker Paul Ryan created a buzz when he told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he was “just not ready” to support Trump until the presumptive nominee could advance conservative principles and “run a campaign that Republicans can be proud of.” Sen. Ben Sasse also captured the imagination of the #NeverTrump crowd with a Facebook post calling for a third party candidate instead of the “two terrible options” of Trump and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
On the flip side, two of Trump’s former competitors, Sen. Rand Paul and former Gov. Rick Perry, both endorsed Trump, with Perry saying he was open to being Trump’s running mate. Contributors at conservative site RedState were scathing in their responses, pointing out that Paul had said Trump was “a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag,” and Perry had called him a “cancer on conservatism.”
Regarding Rubio, during an appearance with Bret Baier on Fox News on Thursday, Trump claimed that he had had several “really nice conversations” recently with Rubio and that Rubio had been “very supportive, very good” and “said very nice things.”
However, Trump’s claims of talking to Rubio were completely false, two sources close to Rubio confirmed to Heat Street, emphasizing that Rubio had not spoken to Trump recently and certainly had not expressed support.
In fact, as Rubio’s advisers pointed out, he’s been very busy this week, out of the country on an official Congressional visit to the Middle East. Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, visited with officials in Qatar, Iraq, and Turkey, as well as American military servicemembers and Christian leaders.
Rubio with airmen and troops from Florida at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar on Monday. Photo credit: Rubio Senate office. Source.
Marc Caputo, Politico’s Florida reporter who covered Rubio for years at his previous gig at the Miami Herald, has been emphatically skeptical that Rubio would accept an invitation to be Trump’s running mate, vowing that if he was wrong, he would print out his own article and eat it. “I’ll literally eat my words…It’s so ridiculous and Rubio has denied it so many times…Not. Gonna. Happen.”
@AaronBlake @TheFix regarding Rubio: No way. https://t.co/VyJxXFDe2h pic.twitter.com/y90JdJEPSZ
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) May 4, 2016
Republican strategist and Heat Street contributor Rick Wilson, a longtime Rubio friend and adviser, was far more blunt, tweeting that a NewsMax article claiming Rubio had been “lobbying for the job” behind the scenes to be Trump’s vice president was “weapons-grade bullsh**.”
Categorically untrue. Weapons-grade bullshit. https://t.co/eRKB9FBThV
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 6, 2016
Rubio is scheduled to return from his Middle East trip on Saturday. Sources were unable to confirm what exactly Rubio’s plans were when he gets back, but here’s hoping he takes a page out of Paul Ryan’s playbook. At minimum, Rubio does not plan to attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, according to our sources.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker
