Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Donald Trump said he respects Florida Gov. Rick Scott, but didn’t know whether the Naples Republican would be supporting the GOP front runner.
“I have a lot of respect for Rick Scott,” Trump said. “I don’t know about his endorsement, but he’s a friend of mine. I have a lot of respect for Rick Scott.”
Trump held a news conference at his luxury resort in Palm Beach County on Tuesday. Speculation predicted Scott would be on hand to endorse the New York businessman, but that didn’t happen.
Trump eschewed a traditional celebration, choosing instead to hold a nearly 30-minute news conference. He fielded questions from reporters, varying from his support for Planned Parenthood to his inability to denounce the Ku Klux Klan during an interview over the weekend.
He also sounded off on Marco Rubio, who also held an election night event in Miami.
“They’re declaring Marco Rubio the big loser of the night, which is true,” Trump said. “He hasn’t won anything.”
Trump was expected to win many of the nominating contests on Tuesday. He fell short in Texas and Oklahoma, where Texas Republican Ted Cruz was expected to come out on top. And Rubio led the pack in Minnesota.
“I liked Marco until about a week ago when he decided to go hostile,” Trump said when asked about Florida’s junior U.S. senator. “I’m not going to tell him what to do, I’m not going to tell anyone what to do. You have to run, but he had a bad night. You got to be able to win. You can’t talk. You got to be able to win something and he actually hasn’t come very close.”
Trump said he plans to spend a lot of time in Florida. The state’s winner-take-all primary is March 15.
“This has been an amazing period of time in my life,” said Trump. “I think we’ve done something almost nobody thought could be done. I am a unifier, and I would love to see the Republican Party get together and unify.”
