Marco Rubio repeats himself, again, while defending his debate performance
Republican White House contender Marco Rubio struggled at a debate on Saturday, just days ahead of the New Hampshire primaries, repeating himself with talking points, even when called out by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Even after the failure at debate, Rubio went on ABC and repeated the same talking points.
Rubio retreated time and again to canned statements from his speeches and looked uncomfortably rattled.
“Marco, the thing is this,” Christie said during one heated exchange early in the night, “when you’re president of the United States, when you’re a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person.”
After a strong performance in Iowa, Rubio is stumbling just days from the Granite State votes, possibly breathing new life into the campaigns of Christie, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Governor John Kasich, three experienced politicians who, like Rubio, represent establishment Republicans.
On Sunday morning, Rubio returned to the scene of the crime, ABC News, and This Week host George Stephanopoulos led off the interview by asking Rubio “What went wrong” to make Rubio go back to that rehearsed phrase so many times.
Full transcript below.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Democrats are circulating that video from last night, Senator Marco Rubio joins us live right now. What went wrong?
RUBIO: Well, actually, I would pay them to keep running that clip because that’s what I believe passionately. It’s one of the reasons why I’m not running for reelection to the Senate and I’m running for president. This notion and this idea that somehow, oh, this is an accident — ObamaCare was not an accident. Dodd-Frank was not an accident. The deal with Iran was not an accident —
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you’re getting pounded for repeating that speech.
RUBIO: Well, look, we raised more money last night in the first hour that debate than any other debate. As far as that message, I hope they keep running it and I’m going to keep saying because it’s true. Barack Obama — yes, has he hired incompetent people to implement laws and run agencies? Absolutely. But when it comes to the — what he’s trying to do to America, it’s part of a plan. He has said he wanted to change the country; he’s doing it in a way that is robbing us of everything that makes us special. I’m going to keep saying that because that not only is it the truth, it is at the core of our —
STEPHANOPOULOS: But even after Chris Christie called you out for what he called canned speeches, 25-second canned speeches, you repeated again, he says, there you go again. That was not a good moment for you, was it?
RUBIO: It’s what I believe. And it’s what I’m going to continue to say because it happens to be one of the main reasons why I am running. I — this is the greatest country in the history of mankind because of a certain set of principles. Barack Obama wants us to abandon those principles that he has spent seven years putting in place policies that rip them from us: undermining the Constitution, undermining free enterprise, undermining our standing in the world, weakening America, apologizing for us on the global stage. The reason why I’m running is if we elect someone like that for the next four years, I think it may be too late for American to turn around.
[…] his alleged surge in Iowa, Marco Rubio appears to have been set back by his awful debate performance on Saturday, finishing fifth, well behind Bush. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a strong showing, drawing […]
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