Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) did not mince words on Saturday, labeling President Barack Obama as the most "divisive figure in modern American history."
Appearing before a crowd of about 1,000 at a South Carolina GOP fundraiser, Rubio added that Obama has deserted the principles he ran on during the 2008 Election.
"The man who today occupies the White House and is running for president is a very different person," said Rubio, according to MSNBC's First Read. "We have not seen such a divisive figure in modern American history than we have over the last three and one-half years."
Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse responded on Sunday morning, calling Rubio's attacks "as dishonest as they are desperate."
"No one has tried harder to reach across the aisle on everything from jobs and trade to a plan to get our fiscal house in order than has President Obama and every step of the way Republican leaders have either buckled to the far right wing of their party or decided to put politics ahead of moving our country forward," Woodhouse said.
Viewed by some as a figure with similar starpower to what Obama had among Democrats in 2004, Rubio has vowed to say no if presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney asked him to be his running mate.
"Marco Rubio is a huge star in the Republican Party in much the same way that Barack Obama was in the Democratic Party between his convention speech in 2004 and his candidacy for the president," Steve Schmidt, a top adviser to GOP Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, told the Associated Press. "There are a lot of pluses when you look at Marco Rubio as a potential vice presidential candidate, but there are also unknowns."
Back on April 19, Rubio appeared to be pretty sure.
"Yeah, I don't want to be the vice president right now, or maybe ever," he said at a National Journal event in Washington.