Rubio dismisses Bloomberg as a ‘private citizen’

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio early Sunday dismissed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is rumored to be mulling an independent White House bid, as “just a private citizen who owns a big company.”

{mosads}Asked on “Fox News Sunday” about the possibility of Bloomberg launching a third-party presidential campaign, the Florida senator said he is not concerned about the outspoken former mayor making a late entry into the 2016 race.

“I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about Mayor Bloomberg and what he might or might not do. I’ve met him a couple of times, I don’t know him well, don’t agree with his stance on the Second Amendment and some other issues,” he said.

“I’ll wait until he becomes a candidate,” Rubio continued. “If he becomes a candidate, then we’ll have a conversation about our differences. If he’s just someone out there talking about running for president, well there’s a lot of people that have done that. As of now he’s just a private citizen who owns a big company.”

Bloomberg has been rumored to be examining the possibility of an independent White House run as primaries and caucuses in early voting states are rapidly approaching.

Bloomberg was elected New York City mayor as an independent in 2001. He has reportedly considered White House runs before, most recently in 2012, but he has never fully jumped into the presidential fray.