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 Trump, the front-runner in the Republican race, needled Trey Gowdy
for his role as chairman of the House of Representatives select
committee investigating the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which
four Americans were killed.
In October, Hillary Clinton, 68, front-runner for the Democratic
nomination, calmly deflected committee criticism of her handling of
the attack while she was President Barack Obama's secretary of
state.
"In total (the committee) was not good for Republicans and the
country. I mean beyond Republicans, it was bad for the country. I
hope he does a whole lot better for Marco," Trump, 69, said of Gowdy
on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
 The conservative news site Townhall reported Gowdy's planned
endorsement, and an email from the Rubio campaign confirmed that
Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, would travel with Rubio, 44, on
the campaign trail on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Marco is a rock solid conservative and a strong leader we can
trust. I look forward to campaigning in Iowa with him, and
introducing my good friend to voters across the state," Gowdy said
in a statement.
A billionaire businessman and former reality TV star, Trump further
needled Gowdy online, retweeting a number of messages critical of
Gowdy and the committee.
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"Face it, Trey Gowdy failed miserably on Benghazi. He allowed it to
drag out and in the end, let Hillary get away with murder," one user
wrote.
Despite Trump's critique, a Gowdy endorsement could boost Rubio, a
U.S. senator from Florida who trails Trump in most national opinion
polls but has been on the rise ahead of the first contest for the
nomination, scheduled for Iowa on Feb. 1.
Rubio pulls 8.5 percent Republican support behind Trump's 39.3
percent, Ted Cruz's 12.8 percent and Ben Carson's 9.6 percent in a
national rolling five-day Reuters/Ipsos survey issued on Dec. 24.
(Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Howard Goller)
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