Rubio says Obama's gay-marriage support 'was all about politics'

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), widely believed to be a leading candidate for the Republican vice presidential nomination, accused President Obama of voicing his support for same-sex marriages "for political reasons" in an interview set to air Thursday afternoon.

“He did it for political reasons because he doesn't want to talk about the economy," Rubio told Fox Business Network. "What I just pointed to you a moment ago, are you better off today than you were four years ago — he doesn't want that to be what this election is about. And so it's not just on gay marriage, I think every week he'll roll out another issue to distract from it."

Rubio said that Obama's admission that his plan to announce his shift on the issue later in the summer was disrupted by Vice President Biden was further evidence his decision was a political one.

"I think they've actually admitted that it was politically calculated, because they said they were going to make this decision anyway, they just want to do it closer to the convention. He admitted that he was going to announce this anyway, he just wanted it to be around the convention, he wanted it to be even more dramatic. So of course this was all about politics," Rubio said.

The popular freshman senator went on to reiterate his belief "that marriage is an institution where there's a union between one man and woman."

But Rubio again deferred on the vice presidential speculation that has reached a fevered pitch.

"I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to discuss the vice presidential selection process. I’m not going to discuss it in any way. Mitt Romney has a long history of making good decisions in his personal life, in his business life, in his political life. So, I have no doubt he’s going to make a great selection as his running mate.

"And I’m confident of that, and I’m curious to see who it’s going to be, like everyone is," he continued. "I'll tell you what I think this country needs. And that is someone who is going to make things better than they've been in the last three and a half years," Rubio said.

Rubio also discussed new developments in the economy, saying the "crisis" was the fact Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did not believe a debt crisis existed.

“There’s the crisis right there. The fact that Geithner doesn’t think there is one," Rubio said.

Rubio went on to blast former President Clinton for suggesting Democrats should just allow the Bush tax cuts to expire.

“If you raise taxes on an economy that isn’t growing, you’re going to destroy it. The only way for us to find ourselves out of this problem that we face today is the combination of rapid, explosive economic growth combined with a new sense of fiscal discipline. The problem with the tax increases that former president Clinton is outlining is that they will prevent or hold back the kind of rapid economic growth that we need," Rubio said.

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