Rubio: Leave me out of Trump’s ‘freak show’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview broadcast early Monday that he wants no part of fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s media circus.

{mosads}“I’m not interested in the back-and-forth — to be a member or part of his freak show,” Rubio told host Steve Inskeep on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

“I would just say this: He is a very sensitive person,” he added of Trump. “He doesn’t like to be criticized. He responds to criticism very poorly.”

Trump has set his sights on Rubio amid rising enthusiasm for the Florida lawmaker.

“He’s got the worst voting record in the United States Senate,” Trump said of Rubio on CNN’s “New Day” last week. “He’s never there, meaning he doesn’t work or he’s too lazy to go back and vote.

“He shouldn’t even be running in this race, as far as I’m concerned,” Trump added. “He’s a kid.”

Trump remains the front-runner for next year’s Republican presidential coronation across multiple national polls.

His lead is shrinking, however, as other candidates gain more media attention and refine their own campaign messages.

Rubio presently places fourth in the GOP field with 9.6 percent voter support, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.