--- title: Marco Rubio Says He's Ready to Be President, Would Give Hillary an 'F' description: The senator from Florida says he isn't concerned about his poll numbers when it comes to his plans for 2016 canonical: https://time.com/95303/marco-rubio-president/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-11T14:47:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:46:16.339Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio Says He's Ready to Be President, Would Give Hillary an 'F' og:description: The senator from Florida says he isn't concerned about his poll numbers when it comes to his plans for 2016 og:url: https://time.com/95303/marco-rubio-president/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4525ab51f72dbe15/69868eec55a85983b4a80ca0/marco-rubio.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4701 og:image:height: 2644 og:image:alt: Senator Marco Rubio addresses the New Hampshire Rockingham Committee Freed Founder's Dinner in New Castle, N.H., on May 9, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio Says He's Ready to Be President, Would Give Hillary an 'F' twitter:description: The senator from Florida says he isn't concerned about his poll numbers when it comes to his plans for 2016 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4525ab51f72dbe15/69868eec55a85983b4a80ca0/marco-rubio.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marco Rubio: I'm Ready to Run for President > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 11, 2014 2:47 PM UTC  Senator Marco Rubio addresses the New Hampshire Rockingham Committee Freed Founder's Dinner in New Castle, N.H., on May 9, 2014. Senator Marco Rubio addresses the New Hampshire Rockingham Committee Freed Founder's Dinner in New Castle, N.H., on May 9, 2014. Scott Eisen—Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 11, 2014 2:47 PM UTC Marco Rubio says he is [ready to become the President](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/05/sen-marco-rubio-yes-im-ready-to-be-president/) of the United States. “I think that’s true for multiple other people that would want to run,” Florida’s junior senator told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on _This Week_ Sunday. “I mean, I’ll be 43 this month, but the other thing that perhaps people don’t realize, I’ve served now in public office for the better part of 14 years. Most importantly, I think a president has to have a clear vision of where the country needs to go and clear ideas about how to get it there, and I think we’re very blessed in our party to have a number of people that fit that criteria.” Rubio was once considered to be a frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, but his poll numbers have been slipping as of late. He told Karl he’s not paying much attention to those polls (“It’s probably the TIME cover jinx, just like the Sports Illustrated jinx,” he joked, in reference to TIME’s February 2013 [cover story](http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/07/immigrant-son/) on the senator). During the interview, Rubio also said he did not believe humans have contributed to global climate change and that he would give Hillary Clinton an “F” grade for her job as Secretary of State. Rubio added that if he decided to run for president, he would not simultaneously seek re-election as a Florida senator. “I believe that if you want to be president of the United States, you run for president,” Rubio said, in a thinly-veiled dig at Republican rival Rand Paul. Republican lawmakers in Paul’s home state of Kentucky [recently](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/17/dead-for-now-kentucky-bill-allowing-twin-paul-2016-runs/) unsuccessfully tried to pass a bill that would have let Paul run for the presidency and re-election in the Senate. “You don’t run for president with some eject button in the cockpit that allows you to go on an exit ramp if it doesn’t work out,” Rubio added. \[[_ABC_](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/05/sen-marco-rubio-yes-im-ready-to-be-president/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/95303/marco-rubio-president/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/95303/marco-rubio-president/"},"headline":"Marco Rubio: I'm Ready to Run for President","datePublished":"2014-05-11T14:47:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:46:16.339Z","description":"The Republican senator from Florida said in an interview on Sunday he's ready to be commander-in-chief and didn't waste time with digs at potential nomination rival Sen. 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