Sen. Marco Rubio told Republican donors Tuesday that he would continue to show that he is different from Donald Trump during his re-election bid and otherwise not "spurn" or "denigrate" the presumptive nominee.
"I don't intend to spurn him or denigrate him," the Florida senator said on a conference call of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Anyone who watched the last 11 months is aware that Donald and I have some policy disagreements — and by the way, I'm capable of working with people whom I disagree with on things."
BuzzFeed News obtained audio of the conference call.
"I guess the way I've told everyone is that I disagree with Donald Trump on a few things," Rubio added. "There's no doubt about it. But I disagree with Hillary Clinton on everything. I mean, virtually everything."
Rubio, who dropped out of the 2016 campaign in March, said last week that he would seek a second Senate term. The seat was in danger of being flipped to Democrats by top GOP officials.
He had been asked by donors how would he handle being down-ticket in November with Trump at the top, BuzzFeed reports.
The senator and committee officials estimated that Rubio and his supporters would need to spend as much as $50 million on television ads alone during the campaign, according to the report.
"I think we're capable of working with people toward a common goal that we may have disagreements about on any given issue," Rubio said. "But the things we disagree on, we just have to disagree on in a respectful way.
"We're not going to denigrate anyone. Don't expect him to denigrate us.
"But I most certainly don't want Hillary Clinton to win," the senator added. "We'll work our way through it.
"I have my own identity of course to the extent that there are those that have any problems. I think that's something that's a bigger issue for the media than it will be for our campaign."
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