Senator Marco Rubio‘s 2016 presidential campaign fighting words against Donald Trump were used against him on Sunday after he said it would be “an honor” to serve as the former president’s running mate in the 2024 election.
The Florida Republican went against Trump in the 2016 presidential GOP primary, which Trump won with 1,447 delegates before winning the general election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Rubio, who ended up with only 167 delegates, trashed Trump on the campaign trial.
Speaking to CNN‘s Jake Tapper in March 2016, Rubio warned: “For years to come, there are many people on the right, in the media and voters at large, that are going to be having to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump.”
Rubio endorsed Trump, the presumed GOP 2024 presidential nominee, for president in January, writing in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he supports Trump “because that kind of leadership is the ONLY way we will get the extraordinary actions needed to fix the disaster [President Joe] Biden has created.”
In addition, Rubio recently told Politico, “If anybody has been offered the chance to be vice president, they should consider that an honor and an incredible opportunity to serve our country,” after his name was floated for Trump’s potential vice president pick. “But that hasn’t happened, I haven’t spoken to anybody on his campaign about it. Never once have I talked to [Trump] about vice presidency.”
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During an interview appearance on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, host Jonathan Karl played a clip of Rubio at a campaign event in February 2016 for the senator.
In the clip, Rubio called Trump a “con artist,” telling the crowd, “He runs on this idea that he is fighting for the little guy. But he has spent his entire career, sticking it to the little guy…If you all have friends who are thinking about voting for Donald Trump, friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”
“It was a campaign,” Rubio told Karl after the clip was played. “Why didn’t you play the clip of Kamala Harris basically insinuating that Biden was a segregationist on the debate stage and she’s now his vice president?”
Newsweek reached out to Rubio’s office and Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
When then-Democratic California Senator Kalama Harris ran against Biden in the 2020 primaries, she criticized him for talking about his working relationships with the late senators James Eastland and Herman Talmadge.
“I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground,” Harris said at the time. “But it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”
When asked on This Week about his previous comments to Politico about potentially being Trump’s vice president, Rubio doubled down: “I think anyone who’s offered the opportunity to serve this country as vice president should be honored by the opportunity to do it, if you’re in public service.”
Rubio isn’t the only past challenger of Trump to endorse him. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, hurled insults at Trump during the 2016 presidential primaries, calling him “utterly amoral,” and in January, Cruz told Fox News‘ Sean Hannity that he was “proud” to endorse Trump.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.