During a particularly nasty stretch of the Republican presidential primary, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) mocked Donald Trump for, among other things, his face, his hair, and the size of his hands ... er, manhood.
It wasn’t exactly high-minded stuff. And though Rubio had been goaded into going down this route – Trump had been calling him "Little Marco" for weeks and joyfully mocked his preternatural dehydration – he ended up apologizing for it.
“I want my kids to be proud of me, and I don’t think it reflected well on my faith,” he said. “That’s not who I am.”
Turns out, Rubio’s apology tour was done in private as well as public. In an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, he explained that he also expressed his regrets directly to Trump.
"I actually told Donald -- one of the debates, I forget which one -- I apologized to him for that," Rubio said. "I said, 'You know, I'm sorry that I said that. It's not who I am and I shouldn't have done it.' I didn't say it in front of the cameras, I didn't want any political benefit."
It’s unclear if Trump returned the favor. But the presumptive Republican nominee has seemed to warm to Rubio in recent weeks, even encouraging him to reconsider his decision not to run for re-election.
Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.