Staff Reports
Florida Democrats are taking Marco Rubio’s vow to serve out a full term in the U.S. Senate with a grain of salt.
The Florida Democratic Party launched MarcoRubioForPresident.com Thursday. The landing page features a 30-second video of Rubio saying during Monday’s U.S. Senate debate he would “serve in the Senate for the next six years, God willing.”
“I’m going to be a senator for the next six years on behalf of the state of Florida,” the Miami Republican says in the video. “You can’t be a senator and president at the same time. I am running for the United States Senate and I’m going to serve six years, God willing.”
But to say Florida Democrats are skeptical might be an understatement.
“Let’s dispel with this fiction that Marco Rubio isn’t fully planning on running for president in 2020,” said Max Steele, a spokesman for the state party, in a news release. “After saying ‘like 10,000 times’ he would not seek re-election to a job he spent months complaining about, Rubio broke his word yet again. Marco Rubio has never let promises get in the way of his unquenchable ambition, and Floridians know he’s not about to start now.”
Rubio campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas responds: “This is just another desperate gimmick after the national Democratic Party abandoned Patrick Murphy and canceled tens of millions [of dollars worth] of ads it planned to run on his behalf.”
Rubio repeatedly said he wouldn’t run for re-election after his failed 2016 presidential bid. But days before the qualifying deadline, he reversed course and threw his hat in the race.
