Rubio: No Presidential Candidate ‘Should be Told to Drop Out’

Star freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., doesn’t care much for calls urging Newt Gingrich to abandon the Republican presidential race. "I don't think anybody should be told to drop out,” he told the Tampa Bay Times Wednesday.

“I think people should run until they feel that either they don't want to continue or they don't see a path to victory. I've never been a believer in asking people to drop out of a race because I had a bunch of people ask me to drop out of a race."

Rubio also doesn’t share the concern of some Republicans that the long primary process will damage the party.

"We're all impatient. We all want to know who the nominee is so we can get to work," he told the Times. "So certainly, yeah, the sooner the better. But I'm not concerned. This is the process, and the process will work its way through. What I think is very important for Republicans is not to talk ourselves into this idea that somehow because we're having a longer primary than we've had in past years that we're somehow doomed to failure in November.”

Once the nominating race is over, a fresh campaign begins, he said. “The election will become a choice between two very different people, between two very different views of America. And the election will become about the president's record."