Marco Rubio: If GOP Doesn’t Change, It Can’t Lead the Country

During an appearance on The Glenn Beck Radio Program Friday, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) said he believes that, if the Republican Party "does not change," it cannot be "a national party that leads the country."

"We're really afraid that you're going to start getting the Mitt Romneys, the Jeb Bushes — when he's out — all the establishment liking you," host Glenn Beck said, "and that will say to people like us, good God, run like there is no tomorrow from Marco Rubio."

Rubio responded to Beck, saying, "The fact of the matter is that I'm running despite the fact that the majority of the people — you want to call it the establishment — told me that I shouldn't run, that it wasn't my turn."

The Florida senator told Beck that the GOP needs to transform its image if it wants to be a national party and insisted that not every problem has a federal solution.

"In many respects, what is happening today is an effort to transform the Republican Party itself to one that is closer to its face of hard-working Americans," Rubio said. "Every problem in America does not have a federal solution — most problems don't have a federal solution. The federal government is a very limited branch of government."

Rubio told Beck the Republican Party needs to "reclaim" the belief that most government solutions, "if they exist," are at the state and local levels.

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