“I just don’t think it’s a smart thing for Republicans to do Hillary Clinton’s job for her,” Rubio said in a gaggle after his speech at a rally organized by county Republican parties in Northwest Iowa. “One of the reasons I think we lost in 2012 is Republicans attacking each other weakened their eventual nominee.” 

Rubio repeatedly declined to comment on Bush’s attacks beyond saying that he had a right to determine his own campaign strategy.

“I just think that someone in his campaign has convinced him that the way forward is to attack me, and so that’s why they’re doing it,” Rubio said. ”That’s fine, everybody makes their own decisions. I’m gonna focus on my campaign. You’re not gonna hear me speak bad about him or anybody else running on the Republican side. If there are policy differences we’ll discuss them.”