Rubio: ’16 decision won’t depend on Bush

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Friday morning that his decision on whether to run for president in 2016 won’t depend on whether his friend former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) also joins the field.

“The bottom line is: whatever decision I’ll make will be based on me and not on whoever else is running,” Rubio said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” 

{mosads}Former President George W. Bush told Fox News on Thursday that his brother would be a great president and that he’s “weighing his options.”

But Rubio said that he’s never talked to Jeb Bush about their respective flirtations with running for the country’s highest office, and that he’s looking for the “best place for me to further the agenda … that allows us to fulfill this nation’s potential.”

“Is it in the Senate? Is it running for president? I don’t know the answer to that yet,” Rubio said. “It’s something I’ll have to think about. I imagine [Jeb Bush is] going through the same exact process right now.”

The two popular Florida conservatives would face significant challenges if they both made a White House bid.

“Many of their strongest supporters overlap, and key Florida donors would be forced into an impossible position to choose one friend over the other,” wrote Matt Mackowiak, a Republican consultant in a 2013 op-ed. Mackowiak doubted that the two would face off.