“Why shouldn’t he [resign]? He hates the Senate,” Reid said in an interview with POLITICO on Thursday. “Why should the taxpayers of this country and people of Florida put up with having only one senator? Doesn’t seem fair to me.”

Rubio’s opponents – both Democrats and Republicans – have attacked the senator for his declining attendance record. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of Rubio’s home-state newspapers, has called on Rubio to give up his seat, and Jeb Bush also seized on Rubio’s missed votes during Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate – although the former Florida governor’s attacks were largely seen as having backfired.