GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has called his rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, weak on immigration, but Rubio isn't much impressed with Trump's plan to deport all illegal immigrants, then allow those back in who don't have criminal backgrounds.
"If you think about where he was six months ago, it's nothing like what he's saying now," Rubio said on CNN's
"State of the Union." "Even what he's saying now borders on the absurd. He's going to deport all these people and allow back in the ones that are good. His plan makes no sense."
Asked whether he agrees with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who said he doesn't trust Trump's finger on the nuclear button, Rubio said, "I wouldn't term it that way."
Still, he said, he doesn't think Trump has proved "an understanding of these issues or the preparation to be commander in chief of the most powerful military force in the world."
Responding to criticism he is missing too many votes while running for the GOP presidential nomination, Rubio said his goal is to actually make the votes taken in the Senate count.
"A lot of these votes don't mean anything. They're not going to pass, and if they did the president would veto it," Rubio said.
Rubio says that while votes are important, it is just one part of his job as senator and that he keeps up with intelligence briefings and constituent services during his campaign.
Rubio has missed about 60 votes during his White House bid, compared to Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, running as a Democrat, who have each missed fewer than 10 each.
One key difference: Paul and Sanders are not giving up their Senate seats to run for president as Rubio is.
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