Radio host and Conservative Review editor Mark Levin tells Breitbart News Daily Marco Rubio showed “enormous disrespect” by cancelling his scheduled speech at the Conservative Review conference Thursday night only five minutes before he was set to appear on stage.
Levin reminds executive chairman and host Stephen K. Bannon that he worked for Ronald Reagan’s administration for eight years and campaigned for his two terms. “The guy was a class act. He was always on time. When he said he’d do something, he’d do it.”
“I have to tell you, we had five, six, seven thousand people there and a thousand were turned away because they could’t get through the Secret Service… People came out, they were very, very enthusiastic. And at the last minute, Marco Rubio’s people say, ‘Well, his schedule is really jammed up and he can’t come to speak.”
“Here’s the bottom line: That shows enormous disrespect and a lack of class. And it concerns me a lot,” Levin said.
“He had to speak before thousands of conservatives. And he didn’t want to do it. And rather than apologize, said I can’t be there and so forth, he did this scheduling nonsense and his surrogates had to be there, and they’re all ready to talk. Of course, the rule was, we don’t want any surrogates. Candidates come and speak, or they don’t. And look, some of them didn’t: Jeb Bush, Trump, Kasich,” adding that those candidates were already booked to attend a CNN town hall. “We get it. Things are busy. But don’t tell us you’re going to come and bail out at the last minute.”
“But he really wasn’t missed, to be perfectly honest with you,” Levin said. “It was a remarkably well-attended and successful event.”
“I thought it was very immature and a complete lack of class,” he added.
Bannon asked if Rubio had the “moral toughness, fiber and grit” to be commander-in-chief.
“It does go to the issue of behavior and mentality. I don’t know about all the rest. But you want a level of maturity, respect, and so forth in your president,” Levin said. “There’s a number of candidates that don’t have that. We have a current president that doesn’t have that. I think Marco Rubio knew he would be at a disadvantage. He knew it wouldn’t be 100 percent supportive, if he thought it was going to be a campaign rally for Marco Rubio, or an interview with Greta van Susteren or Megyn Kelly.”
“The fact that he won’t come before a group like this says a lot. By the way, Steve, he won’t come on my show anymore,” he added.
Asked whether Rubio has the gravitas to be commander-in-chief, Levin replied.
Well, he is not my number-one guy. Let me put it to you that way. Whether or not he has the gravitas to be president of the United States — I think… he’s showing weakness. And not because he’s not showing up at the Conservative Review event. Because that’s not the end-all, be-all. I don’t like the way he’s conducted himself during this campaign. I don’t like the way he’s twisted his immigration record.
Levin noted that he had Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions on his radio show to sort out the Gang of Eight obfuscations. “He doesn’t own up to the things he did… To me, he’s in a mush with Jeb Bush, and Kasich, and so forth. He’s just not a top-tier guy as far as I’m concerned.”
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Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com.