U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio responded to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's "ridiculous and silly" comments about leaving the GOP because of racism, POLITICO reported.
"I'm even cautious to even dignify that with a serious response. My prediction is that by the end of this election, even Democrats will be embarrassed that Charlie Crist became a Democrat," Rubio said on Wednesday during an appearance on Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto."
"I think it's ridiculous and silly," Rubio added.
On Tuesday, Crist told Fusion's "America with Jorge Ramos" that he switched to the Democratic party because of the "intolerable" racism among Republicans.
"I couldn't be consistent with myself and my core beliefs, and stay with a party that was so unfriendly toward the African-American president, I'll just go there," Crist said. "I was a Republican, and I saw the activists and what they were doing; it was intolerable to me."
The ex-governor said he eventually became uncomfortable in his own party.
"They're perceived now as being anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-gay, anti-education, anti-environment," Crist said. "I just wasn't comfortable."
When asked if he thought Crist was a "phony," Rubio replied "absolutely." He also wondered why Crist didn't make his feelings about GOP racism public years ago.
"I believed that during the campaign," Rubio said, referering to his 2010 Senate race where Crist ran against him as an independent after dropping out of the GOP primary. "It's one of the reasons why I ran for the U.S. Senate. I didn't want my next U.S. senator to be someone like that who wouldn't just be trustworthy in moments of importance for the country, but who would embarrass us by saying these sorts of ridiculous things."
"I think it's absurd and quite frankly it's barely worthy of any sort of response, but because he's running for governor of my state, I guess I need to say what I said," Rubio said.
