Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said his political action committee will be getting involved in several key Senate races across the country this fall -- but first he'll take eight or nine days off with his family when Congress begins its recess next week.
Rubio, in an interview Wednesday morning with Florida reporters, said his involvement might extend to Florida, where Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. faces the Republican winner of the Aug. 14 primary. Rubio said he has a good working relationship with Nelson, and won't explicitly campaign against him. "You're never going to hear me say anything bad about Senator Nelson," he said. But Rubio did say he'd like to see Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as the Senate majority leader, and said the only way to do that is to elect enough Republicans to take charge of the Senate.
Rubio also said he's downloaded the "Mitt's VP" iPhone app released Tuesday by former Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. The campaign pledges the app will be the only way to "get the exciting news" about Romney's VP pick "before the press and just about everyone else."
"I think it's pretty cool. I think it's a good way to announce it," said Rubio, who will be campaigning on Romney's behalf tomorrow in Orlando. Rubio was mum on any other questions surrounding the pick, though. And as for the question whether he has enough experience to be vice president? "I get more experience every day," he said.
And as he noted, there are plenty of other rising stars now being called "the next Marco Rubio," including tea party favorite Ted Cruz of Texas. The Cuban-American beat Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst last night in a pricey Republican primary fight for an open Senate seat in Texas.
Rubio declined to criticize Romney for releasing only two years of tax returns. "I honestly don't think it's that big of a deal," he said. Rubio himself released nine years of returns during his 2010 bid for office, and said that if the Democrats pushing for more disclosure want it, they should pass laws requiring candidates to release their returns. (Few members of Congress release returns.) He was lukewarm on the idea, himself, saying he didn't think additional disclosure would prove much more beyond what candidates must release in personal annual financial disclosure reports.
Rubio was also again critical of the president's announcement earlier this summer that his administration would act to prevent the deportations of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children. Those young people won't vote in November's election, but support for their plight is seen among many Latino voters as an important sign of respect for the wider Hispanic community.
Rubio said he feared it would be a "bureaucratic nightmare," and warned it would "poison the well" for future attempts at a legislative solution. A recent poll showed that that Florida voters, particularly in immigrant-rich pockets of South and Central Florida, overwhelmingly say they support comprehensive immigration reform that would give people living in the state illegally a pathway to citizenship.
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