In what may have been a preview of his speech on Thursday introducing Mitt Romney at the Republican convention, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called the candidate a role model in an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.
“This man is a personal role model to younger men like me, as a father, as a husband,” Rubio said. “Everywhere that he has ever gone, whether in his church or in his community, he has made it better using his talents and his time.”
Rubio rejected the suggestion that controversial remarks about rape by Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., would harm Romney’s campaign, but did say that Akin’s comments make it “much more difficult, borderline impossible perhaps” for him to win the Missouri Senate race, a contest that factors into Republican efforts to win control of the Senate.
“If Republicans get a majority in the Senate,” Rubio said, “This country will be that much closer to getting things turned around. That’s what the stakes are.”
On immigration, Rubio wouldn't be pinned down on whether Romney would continue the policy initiated by the Obama administration to end deportations of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as young children. “What he does support is a legal immigration system that works,” Rubio said, but not “12 million people amnesty” or “the Dream Act as its currently structured.”
“A million people a year immigrate here legally,” he said. “We should celebrate that.”
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