Even after telling Florida Senator Marco Rubio that he had the “breakout performance of the night” during Wednesday’s Republican debate, on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie urged the GOP presidential candidate to resign from the U.S. Senate: “...once and for all, answer The Sun Sentinel’s question, should you resign, would you resign? Why not leave your Senate seat and just remove this issue from your opponents, remove it from the discourse?”
Rubio dismissed the notion: “Well, for me, it's an incredible honor to serve in the United States Senate and I enjoy very much to serve the people of Florida. And for me, for example, we serve real people every day....I enjoy that very much and we enjoy doing that service and we're going to continue to do it.”
On Wednesday, the morning show touted the Sentinel’s nasty hit piece on Rubio as “a tough blow” for his campaign.
Earlier in the Thursday exchange, Guthrie wondered about Rubio pushing back on that very line of attack from his “former mentor” and “friend” Jeb Bush by “taking him on so directly and so personally.”
Rubio replied: “Well, you know, I still have tremendous admiration for him, both as a person and what he did as governor of Florida. And I’m not going to talk bad about Governor Bush. My campaign is not about him. I'm not running against him or against anybody else. It’s what I said last night, I'm running for president.”
After Guthrie asked about the possibility of Bush donors “ready to jump ship and join the Marco Rubio train,” Rubio managed to work in a shot at the media: “Well, look, we're always trying to add new supporters. It costs money to run these races. I always say this respectfully, you know, if the media stops charging us for advertising, we'll stop raising as much money.”
In an interview with Carly Fiorina on the day following the September 16 Republican debate, Guthrie praised the GOP candidate’s strong performance while also suggesting the former Hewlett-Packard CEO was “losing” by explaining her business record.
Here is a full transcript of Guthrie’s October 29 interview with Rubio:
7:05 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Senator Marco Rubio is with us now. Senator Rubio, good morning to you.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO [R-FL]: Good morning. Good morning.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Marco Rubio’s Moment?; Candidate on Last Night’s Debate]
GUTHRIE: Well, you were up late. You’ve got an early morning to join us. Is that blow softened at all by the fact that most reviewers thought you had the breakout performance of the night? Is that how you feel about it?
RUBIO: Well, we feel good about it, it's just a debate. I mean there’s – we've already done two others, we felt good about those as well. And there's more to come. We have another one, I think, in 13 days. And so for us, every time I get a chance to do these debates, it's just an opportunity to hopefully talk to the American people about the future of our country and what I would do if they gave me the chance to be president. So I felt good about that chance last night and of course we're looking forward to the next one as well.
GUTHRIE: Everybody is talking about that moment between you and Governor Jeb Bush, your former mentor and your friend. There were a lot of comparisons to the young Jedi taking on Obiwan Kenobi. I read a tweet by Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post, “That Rubio-Jeb[!] exchange is like when your kid whips your behind in one-on-one for the first time.” Because you do have this personal relationship with Governor Bush, what was it like in that moment, taking him on so directly and so personally?
RUBIO: Well, you know, I still have tremendous admiration for him, both as a person and what he did as governor of Florida. And I’m not going to talk bad about Governor Bush. My campaign is not about him. I'm not running against him or against anybody else. It’s what I said last night, I'm running for president.
What I'm going to continue to do, and what I hope more candidates will do, is we're going to talk about who we are and what we would do, and let everybody do that. And the voters are gonna decide. If there are policy differences between them, we should engage on those policy differences. But that's how I'm going to run my campaign, of course everyone can run theirs. But I’m not going to change how I run my campaign because of what someone else decides to do. And it isn’t going to change my feelings or my views about him.
GUTHRIE: That said, your communications director last night told reporters that your phone is already buzzing, calls from Bush donors ready to jump ship and join the Marco Rubio train. Is that true?
RUBIO: Well, look, we're always trying to add new supporters. It costs money to run these races. I always say this respectfully, you know, if the media stops charging us for advertising, we'll stop raising as much money. And it's expensive to communicate with the American voters and to get our message out.
GUTHRIE: Do the substance of Govenor Bush’s accusations – and I know you’ve heard this time and again recently – once and for all, answer The Sun Sentinel’s question, should you resign, would you resign? Why not leave your Senate seat and just remove this issue from your opponents, remove it from the discourse?
RUBIO: Well, for me, it's an incredible honor to serve in the United States Senate and I enjoy very much to serve the people of Florida. And for me, for example, we serve real people every day. The veteran who has to fight for his disability benefits and prove he's disabled even though he's missing both of his legs that he lost in combat, or the elderly couple that’s been a victim of tax fraud. I enjoy that very much and we enjoy doing that service and we're going to continue to do it.
GUTHRIE: Senator Marco Rubio, up early with us this morning. Thank you very much, appreciate your time.
RUBIO: Thank you.
