GOP presidential candidate Florida Senator Marco Rubio argued that his campaign as been 99% about issues and fellow candidate Donald Trump is “a bully” who “needs a taste of their own medicine” on Monday’s “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel.
Rubio said, “Donald Trump has spent a year now insulting virtually everyone, including people that work at your network, virtually everyone. I mean, there’s very few groups or individuals in America that he hasn’t personally insulted. So, every now and then someone like that needs a taste of their own medicine, because that’s called a bully. And he’s using the pulpit of the presidency — or of the presidential run to insult people. But that’s not the core of our message. 99% of what I speak about, from the day I began this campaign are about serious ideas and serious issues. And I’m still doing that now. On the issue of con artists, that I won’t stop saying. Donald Trump is indeed a con artist. He conned the students at Trump University. Even — for example, Greta, we now know he went off the record with the New York Times and he told them what he really believed about immigration, which apparently is not the same as what he’s telling audiences. Donald Trump should give the New York Times permission to release the audio of that interview.”
He added, “[W]e’ve try to make this campaign about issues. I continue to make it about issues. I talk about issues all the time. [Un]fortunately nobody ever covers issues these days very much. That’s why Donald has gotten 10 times as much coverage as anybody else, because he’s always insulting people and saying outrageous things. It’s funny the media spends a lot of time covering those insults he’s been laying out throughout the last year. I’m going to continue to talk about ideas. My website is full of ideas. I go to the debates and discuss specific ideas. Donald Trump does not have a specific idea about any policy before America, and yet somehow he’s convinced a significant percentage number of Republicans that he should be the next president. We’re not going to let that happen. There is no way we’re going to let a con artist get control of the Republican Party, or the conservative movement.”
Rubio added, “He has dangerous views about the world. This is a person who says he’s not going to stand on Israel’s side. He has not even a fundamental understanding of the defense needs of this country. He didn’t know what the nuclear triad was. He has no understanding of our Asia-Pacific defense relationships. I mean, he’s shown zero interest whatsoever in the specific details. This stuff matters.” And “[H]e doesn’t know it and I think he has dangerous views. Yesterday he was talking about how firm the Chinese government is, as if that is something to look up to. He’s talked about his admiration for Vladimir Putin as a strong leader. He was repeating tweets from Benito Mussolini. He refused to condemn the KKK. He’s been now given multiple opportunities to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, and he refuses to do so, and he pretends he doesn’t know who David Duke is. He knows who David Duke is. he’s talked about him before.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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