Marco Rubio: House GOP not having a "meltdown"
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said that the House GOP's difficulty in finding a speaker to replace John Boehner is not a "meltdown," but rather an "open and public debate" about the future of the party.
"I don't think it is a meltdown at all," Rubio told CBS News Chief White House Correspondent during an interview in Derry, New Hampshire Wednesday. "If, in fact, they had gone into some secret room and anointed someone and came out, everybody would say, 'You see the game is rigged there is no real competition there is no real choices. There is no transparency.'"
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, dropped out of the race for speaker last week, leaving no clear choice for Boehner's successor. Many Republicans have rallied around House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, but he has said he doesn't want the job.
Rubio, who is one of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates, said there's a broader debate within the Republican Party.
"What is this party going to be in the 21st century? Has not the time come for us to turn the page and elevate new leaders with new ideas relevant to the times in which we live? How are we going to take the principles of limited government and free enterprise that undergird the conservative movement and apply them to the challenges of a unique moment, the 21st century?" he said, citing that debate as one of the reasons he is running for president.
He said he doesn't side with Boehner, who has warned of "false prophets" in the party who promise voters things they cannot deliver. Nor, he said, does he side with Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Florida, the speaker candidate backed by the conservative House Freedom Caucus, because he's not involved in the current fight.
But he defended members of the GOP who take up fights they are not certain they can win.
"I would say that we can have a debate in our party about the appropriate tactics. I personally do not believe that it is a wise tactic to declare defeat before you even try to win," he said, citing people who say the GOP cannot win a fight over increasing the debt limit or defunding Planned Parenthood.
"I think that's misjudging the American electorate, and quite frankly, it really undermines and depresses and demoralizes the base of this party that gave the Republican Party the majority in the Senate," he said. "They didn't give us the majority in the senate so we can concede defeat on every issue."