Attacks on Rubio

Christie ramps up attacks on Rubio

By Nolan D. McCaskill

Chris Christie is intensifying his attacks on Marco Rubio as the New Jersey governor eyes a second-tier finish in New Hampshire, where candidates in second place through fifth place hover between 10 percent and 12 percent in an average of state polls.

“The problem is with someone like Marco Rubio, who quite frankly hasn’t proven that he can get anything done, except to get up in the morning, you know, fix his hair, smile and give the same speech he’s given for the last six years,” Christie said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I don’t understand how that’s a qualification for president of the United States.”

Rubio finished third in the Iowa caucuses Monday, narrowly trailing second-place Donald Trump with 23 percent support to Trump’s 24 percent. Christie, who is polling sixth at 6 percent in New Hampshire, where he has spent the most time campaigning, maintains that he has executive experience that Rubio lacks.

“When you ask him a question about his record, he turns to somebody else’s,” Christie said, before touting his own record in New Jersey.

“You know, it’s great to give a nice speech,” he said. “It’s beautiful to read from a teleprompter or notes, as Marco does all the time. I mean, quite frankly, even when he’s leveling his insults at me he has to read them from a piece of paper.”

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who dropped out of the race and endorsed Rubio on Wednesday, also struggled to name one accomplishment Rubio has had in the Senate.

“I will tell you one thing Marco Rubio has done,” Christie said. “He’s made it very clear that on the issue of pro-life, that Marco Rubio is not for an exception for race, rape, incest or life of the mother. Now, you know, I think that’s the kind of position that New Hampshire voters would be really concerned about.”

Christie said he, like former President Ronald Reagan, is anti-abortion but favors those exceptions. “So Marco Rubio is just a guy who moves and shifts, depending on what he thinks he can get out of the electorate and what he thinks he can get from them,” he said. “And, you know, he is just not proven as a leader. He has not accomplished anything of note in his career in the United States Senate or in his time as speaker of the House in Florida. And so it’s time for the boy in the bubble to come out of the bubble and answer these questions and tell us thing, rather than just continue to give the same speech he’s been giving for the last six years.”

Rubio’s speech is “fine” and “great,” Christie added, “but it’s time to come up with something new to say.”