Ted Cruz will not support Trump, Marco Rubio will

WASHINGTON: US Senator Ted Cruz has said he is not ready to support Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump and indicated that he might resume his campaign if there is a path to clinching his party's nomination for the White House, despite having dropped out of the race last week.

Another dropout, Florida Senator Marco Rubio has said he would vote for Donald Trump against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton despite his sharp differences with his party's presumptive nominee, while ruling himself out as Trump's possible running mate.

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol Hill, Cruz said, "Listen, we've suspended the campaign because I can see no viable path to victory. Of course if that changed we would reconsider things."

The Texas Senator, however, ruled out a third-party bid for the presidency.

"I am certainly disappointed with the outcome, that I disappointed so many millions of grassroots activists across this country. If you want to know my greatest disappointment, my greatest disappointment is that I wasn't able to win for them. That I came up short and disappointed their efforts, their time, their passion.

Marco Rubio, who withdrew himself from the White House race after he lost his home state Florida to Trump, has now ruled himself out from being considered as a Republican vice presidential candidate

"I've never had those conversations with anyone in his campaign, so I'm not saying that anyone has offered it to me or even suggested it for me. I'm just saying to you that I believe he would be best served by someone who more fully embraces the things he stands for, and that is certainly not me," Rubio told the CNN in an interview when asked if he is in consideration for vice presidential running mate of Trump.

In his first national interview after he quit the presidential race, Rubio said he would not support the Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton in the November general elections.

"I signed a pledge that said I would support the Republican nominee and I intend to continue to do that," he said, indicating that he is pledge-bound to support Trump in the elections.

"On the one hand, I don't want Hillary Clinton to be the president of the US. I don't want her to win this election. On the other hand, I have well-defined differences with the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

"Like millions of Republicans, you try to reconcile those two things. I intend to live up to the pledge that we made. But, that said, these concerns that I have about policy, they remain and they're there. That doesn't mean that Donald needs to change his positions in order to get my support or what have you. He should be true to what he believes in and continue to campaign on those things and make his case to the American people," Rubio said.

The top Republican Senator said he would not use the next six months to be critical of Trump as he advances his presidential campaign.

"I know what I said during the campaign. I enunciated those things repeatedly. And voters chose a different direction. I stand by the things that I said. But I'm not going to sit here now and become his chief critic over the next six months, because he deserves the opportunity to go forward and make his argument and try to win," Rubio added.