democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton arrives at miami international airport tuesday  to attend a rally. | ap photo/andrew harnik by matt dixon 10/11/16 02:55 pm edt tallahassee <u+2014> after taking shots in recent days for his continued support of donald trump, sen. marco rubio on tuesday tried to get back on the offensive, hammering patrick murphy for appearing with his party<u+2019>s nominee. <u+201c>patrick murphy will not stand up to hillary clinton when she is wrong,<u+201d> said rubio campaign spokesman michael ahrens in a statement. <u+201c>from supporting the iran deal to expanding obamacare, to releasing terrorists from guantanamo bay.<u+201d> story continued below murphy is set to speak today at a clinton campaign rally featuring former vice president al gore in miami. rubio has been taking heat because he would not drop his support of trump in the wake of lewd comments the new york billionaire made about women that emerged in a 2005 "access hollywood" video aired by the washington post and nbc news last friday. following the video revelation, rubio immediately condemned trump<u+2019>s comment but did not withdraw his endorsement. meanwhile, a host of other prominent republicans , including arizona sen. john mccain, denounced trump and pulled their endorsement of him. on tuesday, rubio reiterated his support for the former reality tv star. <u+201c>i disagree with him on many things, but i disagree with his opponent on virtually everything,<u+201d> rubio sad in a statement. <u+201c>i wish we had better choices for president. but i do not want hillary clinton to be our next president.<u+201d> rubio is also continuing to keep his distance from trump. trump is holding planned rallies in panama city, lakeland, ocala, and panama city over the next two days, but rubio is not scheduled to attend any of those events. so far, however, rubio's ducking of trump seems to be working. in a new poll released tuesday, rubio was leading murphy by seven ponts. but the university of north florida poll of likely florida voters was completed before friday's revelations that trump used extremely vulgar terms to describe pursuing women. unf pollster michael binder said it<u+2019>s unclear how much damage it could cause rubio. marc caputo's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the sunshine state.
with clinton in florida, rubio tries to get back on offense against murphy
matt dixon