Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign spokesman is vehemently denying a
CNN report that his campaign is in conflict, with some of his advisers telling him to quit his presidential race before his home state votes on March 15.
CNN's Jamie Gangel reported Monday that Rubio is "bullish" on staying in, while some of his advisers fear that a loss in Florida could hurt him politically not only in the short-term, but farther down the road.
A recent
Monmouth University poll shows Rubio trailing front-runner Donald Trump by 8 points in Florida, but that number actually represents a rise by Rubio, who trailed Trump by 20 points in at least three previous surveys.
Florida's primary is winner-take-all, so garnering all 99 delegates there could be a boost to Rubio's flagging campaign.
"Jamie's report was utter nonsense," Rubio communications director
Alex Conant told CNN's Wolf Blitzer after saying he had raced across town to correct the record. The report, he said, was "100 percent false."
Gangel's report cited unnamed sources within the campaign as saying, "Most of his advisers agree he does not have a path to the nomination and some are advising him to get out ahead of the March 15 primary."
"He doesn't want to get killed in his home state," CNN quoted one source. "A poor showing would be a risk and hurt his political future," including a potential spot on the vice presidential ticket this year or a run for governor down the road.
Texas Sen. Ted "Cruz won his home state. If Rubio can't win his, that's a problem," CNN quoted a "prominent supporter."
"Not going to have a great day is an understatement," another source reportedly told CNN of Rubio's expected results on Tuesday when Michigan, Mississippi, Hawaii and Idaho voters go to the polls.
"I'm gonna ask you to stop reading that sort of fiction on air," Conant told Blitzer. "That is fiction and CNN should stop reporting it."
Gangel did not contact the campaign prior to airing the report and her sources don't have any idea of what the internal discussions are, he said.
Blitzer countered that perhaps there are some advisers that did feel differently who spoke candidly to Gangel with their feelings.
"That's just not the case," Conant said, laughing. He said he ran out of a campaign planning meeting to CNN's studios to give his side of the story because CNN had not contacted him earlier.
"How did that happen?" he asked Blitzer. "How did that get to air without somebody asking the campaign for comment?"
Blitzer said he assumed Gangel or someone on her staff contacted someone in the campaign if not Conant himself. But Conant said he was sitting in a meeting with his staff when he saw the report, and none of them said they had heard from CNN.
CNN did note that some in the campaign want him to stay in because they think Rubio will do better than expected in Florida.
Rubio also has essentially given up on getting an endorsement from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the race himself after a poor finish in South Carolina.
Rubio and Bush, who were close before the race, have met three times since Bush dropped out, but Rubio's former mentor seems uninclined to publicly back him and there is still some bad blood between the two camps, Gangel reported.
Conant, asked point blank by Blitzer if Rubio was getting out of the race before Florida, said, "Not only is he not getting out of the race before Florida, he's not getting out of the race after Florida. We're gonna win Florida."
The report comes as The Washington Post reports
Rubio's campaign is in "disarray" after his third-place finish in Kansas on Saturday.
Conant later tweeted that his previously scheduled appearance on "Anderson Cooper 360" had been canceled by the network.
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