"Marco Rubio on Saturday hedged on whether he would support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president.
Addressing reporters ahead of a rally in Largo, Florida, one day after a Trump rally in Chicago was canceled amid clashes between his supporters and protesters, and as Trump cancelled an event scheduled for Ohio on Sunday, the senator offered a blistering critique of frontrunner’s incitement of violence at his events .
“It’s called chaos, anarchy and that’s what we’re careening toward,” Rubio said of the atmosphere
surrounding Trump. “We are being ripped apart at the seams now, and it’s disturbing. I am sad for this country. This country is supposed to be an example to the world.”
Asked if he would still support Trump if he were the party’s nominee, the senator responded: “I don’t know. I intend to support the Republican nominee, but [it’s] getting harder every day.”
Rubio’s comments reflected the first cracks in a pledge taken by all Republican candidates to support the eventual nominee.
At a debate one week ago in Detroit, Rubio said he would support Trump because he would still be better than Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The other Republican candidates, Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich, have also committed to backing Trump if he is the nominee.
According to reporters with Kasich in Sharonville, Ohio, on Saturday, the governor also appeared to waver on the question of backing Trump.
“It makes it extremely difficult,” Kasich said.
On Saturday, a visibly frustrated Rubio said he continued to believe Clinton would be a bad president but said a Trump nomination would “shatter and fracture the Republican Party and conservative movement”.
Rubio spent much of the press conference offering his sharpest rebuke yet of Trump, who he said bore some of the responsibility for violence and protests due to his actions and words.
“This is what happens when a leading presidential candidate goes around feeding into a narrative of bitterness and anger and frustration,” Rubio said.
Rubio was also critical of some of the Chicago protesters, who he said had arrived simply to create a scene. He also blamed the media for its treating Trump’s candidacy as more of a reality show throughout the election cycle.
“We settle our differences in this country at the ballot box, not with guns or bayonets or violence,” Rubio said. “Our politics has become more like the comments section in blogs.”
Taking the stage at a rally moments later, Rubio reiterated the comments.
“Last night, we saw images that make America look like a third-world country,” Rubio said, before laying into Trump once more.
“The job of a leader is not to stoke people’s anger … There are consequences to that, and they’re playing out before our eyes.” msn
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