Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday he meant every critical word he said about Donald Trump on the campaign trail, but now believes he represents "a better chance" for a conservative agenda on issues including a Supreme Court nominee, the repeal of Obamacare and the economy.
In an interview with CNN'
"State of the Union," Rubio gave Trump a "50/50 chance, if not a little better" to win in a race against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"Everything I said during the campaign I meant," he said. "I often say to people, 'it doesn't matter who you vote for, just participate in the process, I want you to vote for whoever I tried to convince them to vote for. How can I now say, stay home, don't vote?"
"Everyone here in this very unusual year is going to have to make their own choice moving forward," he said. "In my view, I know this, despite all my differences with Donald Trump, I have a better chance to get a conservative nominated to the supreme court with him than I ever will with Hillary Clinton.
"If the Congress passes a law to repeal Obamacare, Donald Trump will sign it. Hillary Clinton will veto it. If you talk about rolling back some of these damaging regulations to our economy, Donald Trump will support that. Hillary Clinton will oppose it. Those things matter. These are important issues."
Rubio said Republican voters are coming together around Trump because "they're coalescing around the reality that this is a binary choice."
"Hillary is still engaged in an all-out war with [Sen.] Bernie Sanders, who may not win on delegates but will make his point," he said. "Donald has a 50/50 chance if not a little bit better to win, based on how unpopular Hillary Clinton is."