Marco Rubio said Thursday the
tough words about his job performance in the Senate from Jeb Bush during the CNBC debate haven't changed his admiration or friendship for the man who was once considered his mentor.
"Sometimes campaigns change direction because they're convinced of some strategy or some tactic," the Florida senator and GOP candidate told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "It isn't going to change me, and I said that last night. I haven't said a disparaging word about him and I won't. I have admiration for him. He's considered my friend, and I have personal affection towards him."
He continued that he's running for president, not against Bush or any of the other Republicans in the race.
"What I'm going to continue to do is tell people who I am, and what I'll do as they make me president," he said. "I mean we know that that was an issue that people are out there talking about and they were pushing, but that's not what my campaign is about. It's not about attacking other people and I'm not going to start. If we have policy differences I'm happy to discuss those."
Rubio also addressed the controversy over CNBC's moderators, who have been criticized for their line of questioning during the debate.
"I don't think it's atypical from what you see among most people in the mainstream media which is, privately they believe they're smarter than the people running and they can't wait for their chance to show off in front of their buddies by asking some question they think is going to embarrass [someone], especially Republicans," Rubio said.
The bigger frustration, though, is the candidates had prepared for a substantive debate on trade, the national debt, and tax policies, and then questions that were "clearly designed to either get us to fight against each other, or to say something embarrassing about each other...it became irritating."
Rubio also pushed back against a question about his age, and whether he should wait to run for president.
"I don't know why there's this lack of urgency about the future of America," Rubio told the Fox News program.
He also complained about CNBC reporter John Harwood's question concerning his tax plan, in which he was wrong about the plan's pertinent details.
"He basically made it sound the worst way possible and I caught him and corrected him on it," said Rubio. "The truth is my tax plan allows the people who make the least amount of money to keep the most. But my tax plan helps everyone without hurting anyone. It is not designed to punish anyone."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.