Rubio's campaign is blasting a CNN report that says his advisers are telling him to drop out

CNN is standing by its report that senior campaign advisers for Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida have urged him to drop out of the Republican primary.

CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel reported on Monday that, despite Rubio's confidence in his chances of winning his home state of Florida on March 15, "there's been a serious internal debate ... about whether or not he should drop out before Florida," Gangel said on CNN.

Alex Conant, the communications director for Rubio's campaign, denounced the report on CNN shortly after Gangel's appearance.

"It's absolutely 100% false," Conant said. "CNN is doing a disservice to voters by airing that sort of reporting without even checking with the campaign."

Gangel cited what she called "very senior advisers" who allegedly predicted that Rubio is "not going to do well in Florida." She said that those same advisers told Rubio to drop out to protect his political career.

In an impromptu interview with Wolf Blitzer on Monday, Conant said that Gangel's report is "utter nonsense" and that "we know how to win in Florida ... and it's going to be a new day in the campaign the day after we win Florida."

As Blitzer began to read more of Gangel's report, Conant said, "Wolf, I have a lot of respect for you, but I'm going to ask you to stop reading that sort of fiction on air, because it is not true at all ... and CNN should stop reporting it."

Conant continued railing against CNN on Twitter:

Conant later wrote this email, in which he said that CNN's report is "the latest example of the media's attempt to stop you from voting for Marco":

Rubio has not had much success during the primary season, despite garnering the financial support of some heavyweight donors early on. So far, Rubio has won Minnesota and Puerto Rico, for a total of 151 delegates, according to The Associated Press.