Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told National Public Radio this morning that he wants no part of the “freak show” being stirred by Donald Trump’s run for the GOP nomination.
Trump has taken some jabs at Rubio lately, saying last week that the 44-year-old lawmaker “is like a kid — he shouldn’t be running in this race as far as I’m concerned.”
Rubio, Trump told a crowd in South Carolina, “announced he was going to run because he’s overly ambitious, too young – and I have better hair than he does right?”
“I’m not interested in the back and forth — to be a member or a part of his freak show,” Rubio told NPR.
“I would just say this: He is a very sensitive person; he doesn’t like to be criticized. He responds to criticism very poorly,” the senator continued. “His poll numbers have taken a beating, and he was embarrassed on national television at the debate by Carly Fiorina and others.”
“But this election is not going to be about Donald Trump,” Rubio added. “He thinks it is, but it’s not about him. It has to be about the issues confronting our country. And my sense of it is that every time issues become prominent, he will say something outrageous or do something outrageous so that he doesn’t have to talk about the issues.”
Trump hasn’t responded yet to Rubio on Twitter, but is scheduled to appear on CNN later.
In an interview with 60 Minutes aired last night, Trump was asked why he’s “so thin-skinned” to criticism.
“I don’t like lies. I don’t mind a bad story. If you did a bad story on me for 60 Minutes, if it were a fair story I wouldn’t be thin-skinned at all. You know, some of the media is among the worst people I’ve ever met. I mean a pretty good percentage is really a terrible group of people. They write lies, they write false stories. They know they’re false. It makes no difference. And frankly I don’t call it thin-skinned, I’m angry,” Trump said, adding he can take a punch “if it’s fair.”
In a new NBC/WSJ poll of likely primary voters, Trump has 21 percent support to Ben Carson’s 20 percent, with Carly Fiorina and Rubio tied with 11 percent support each.
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