Possibly. perhaps he is so out of touch he doesn’t think we would notice? However I have heard Rubio squirm on conservative talk shows. He knows exactly what we think. How would he think we wouldn’t notice something like this? So it’s either he was sloppy or just doesn’t care what we think ... or as you say ... he was trying to sneak it by. whatever the rationale it doesn’t cut it with me
Rubio simply doesn’t care what we think. He is happy to take our votes but we are no longer in his political calculations.
The GOP is fading away into irrelevance with such “leaders”.
In another few election cycles the GOP will be nothing more than a 3rd world kleptocrat party taking care of their donors and little else. The Dems will be running the show.