Free Republic

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Donald Trump wants to make sure Marco Rubio's campaign ends in the same state where it started. At a rally that saw the businessman leave the podium to stare down a group of protesters and attempt to lead supporters in a pledge of allegiance to him, Trump unleashed the first salvo in a 10-day campaign to finish off Rubio by defeating him in Florida's March 15 primary. Calling the Florida senator an "idiot," Trump portrayed Rubio as beholden to his donors and said voters here should reject Rubio for neglecting his day job. "What does he do...

There was considerable mockery after former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) spectacularly failed to name a single Rubio accomplishment when he endorsed Rubio a few weeks ago, but it eventually died down. Then, Nevada Congressman Rep. Cresent Hardy ran into the same problem this week. On this week’s Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace (who previously laid waste to Rubio’s small list of accomplishments) asked Rubio why his surrogates can’t name a single accomplishment, and Rubio’s response was just stunning: WALLACE: Senator, why can’t officials who support you, who come out to endorse you, name a specific accomplishment of your time in...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - A malfunctioning Marco Rubio crashed as he was overloaded by attacks last night from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who tried to portray the Florida U.S. senator as a Washington robot pre-programmed by political consultants during a high-stakes Republican debate.

Every Republican and conservative in America knows the media’s double standards when it comes to asking hard questions. It was especially evident this week in the difference between the Democrat and Republican debates. And it is the most evident in how the media deal with abortion. Sen. Rubio takes them apart over it.

In a strange, intense moment during Saturday's debate, Rubio kept repeating the same line. And Chris Christie called him out for it. "There it is!" In a high-profile stumble three days out from the New Hampshire primary, a rattled-looking Marco Rubio retreated from an aggressive grilling during Saturday's debate in a strange way: by reciting the same line at least four times. Rubio, who entered the debate with momentum following a strong third-place showing in Iowa, was asked by a moderator to identify the accomplishments in his record that have prepared him for the presidency.

Running a country is not like being a real estate developer or being a governor, Marco Rubio said Friday, firing back on the notion that his political career, and degrees of experience for that matter, are a liability rather than an asset. During an interview with NBC News, the freshman Florida senator brushed aside concerns that he is "too scripted" and made his case for being the best Republican candidate, arguing that he gives the party the best chance to unify and expand the party and defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election. He went on to add that "no...

Marco Rubio is often compared to Barack Obama on the campaign trail, and he's quick to refute questions over their comparable inexperience before running for president. But there's at least one way the senator from Florida draws his own comparison to Obama - if only to pledge he'll score the big wins for conservatives that Obama did for liberals. "Barack Obama has been the most consequential liberal president since Franklin Roosevelt," Rubio told NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez in a sit-down interview aboard his campaign bus in New Hampshire. Rubio doesn't believe Obama's accomplishments have been good for the country: He...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) - Marco Rubio on Tuesday scooped up an endorsement from a veteran Republican activist in New Hampshire as he looks to build upon a third-place finish in Iowa that has bolstered his credentials as a leading GOP establishment candidate. Susan Duprey, who served as chief of staff to Ann Romney, Mitt Romney's wife, in 2011 and 2012, announced her support for the Florida senator on Tuesday night. She is married to GOP Republican National Committeeman Steve Duprey, who remains neutral in the race. Duprey also worked with her husband on John McCain's 2008 campaign and was...

Sen. Joni Ernst is set to appear on the campaign trail Monday with Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio with only a week until the Iowa caucuses kick off. Ernst, who maintained she is remaining neutral in the race, will be introducing Rubio at an event in Des Moines. "Our nation faces exponential threats, and over the past year, I've had the opportunity to work alongside Marco Rubio on issues critical to our national security," Ernst said in a statement. "Marco is not only a strong conservative and a good friend, but someone that I trust to secure our country." "As...

“Senator Rubio looks in the TV cameras and says things he knows are absolutely false.”

It is a slur that would make most conservatives wince: You're a Republican Barack Obama. And for most of his presidential campaign, Marco Rubio - first-term senator, former state legislator, onetime college professor and fresh face for a party with a fusty image - has always had an answer for why the comparison was unfair.

Clinton triangulated his way to victory against the Republicans in 1992. But can Rubio pull off a similar trick within his party to secure the nomination? In more ordinary political times, Marco Rubio’s position on abortion, opposing any exceptions, not even for rape and incest, would be a career-ender on a national ticket. But in an election cycle where more rules have been broken than kept, Rubio has found a way to wiggle out of the most extreme interpretation of what he said in the GOP’s first presidential debate, and it goes like this: My preference is the position of...

Sen. Marco Rubio has built his presidential campaign around his foreign policy credentials. So why is he now undercutting this reputation by misstating the NSA surveillance reforms passed earlier this year? Two words: Ted Cruz. Sen. Marco Rubio may have framed himself as an expert in national security ,and among the Republican presidential field, he is. But in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks he has been remarkably misleading about American surveillance, even suggesting that those who have tried to rein in the National Security Agency may be responsible for a future terrorist attack. The in-the-weeds nature of NSA...

Donald Trump and Marco Rubio won Tuesday's night primetime Republican debate, according to an overnight poll of Internet users who watched the contest, but Mr. Trump came out as the favorite among Republicans and left the best impression about his ability to serve as president. Some 24% of debate-viewers named Mr. Trump and 23% picked Mr. Rubio as the winner of the eight-candidate event, which was sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson followed, with 13% declaring each to have won. Mr. Trump's lead in the Internet survey was larger among debate-watchers...

Ted Cruz isn’t the only presidential candidate trying to hide his support of the globalist trade deal known as TPP. Marco Rubio is trying a similar approach at avoidance. It would appear that both Rubio and Cruz have recognized that not only is TPP unpopular, but their support for TPP has the potential to expose their hidden alignments with Wall Street globalists. This election will be won/lost around this issue – watch. Marco Rubio - enters race( Via Breitbart ) Marco Rubio declared the Trans-Pacific Partnership to be one of three essential “pillars” of a Rubio Presidency—is now taking issue...

Movie tickets, Costco and grocery store runs, Walt Disney World trips, flowers and flights for his wife –- those are some of the charges listed in two years of statements for Marco Rubio’s American Express card issued by the Republican Party of Florida. The charges -- which have surfaced along with questions about his personal finances as an issue for the GOP candidate in the 2016 campaign -- are listed in two years (2007-'08) of statements obtained by ABC News that have been widely circulated in Florida political circles since Rubio ran for Senate in 2010. The Rubio campaign plans...

Marco Rubio's use of a Republican Party of Florida American Express card is only part of the story. Over the course of his rise in politics, the Tampa Bay Times and partner Miami Herald chronicled his background and controversies. The most detailed accounting of Rubio's AmEx charges is this report from February 2010 that showed how the card was used for groceries, repairs to the family minivan and at a music equipment store. "I was as diligent as possible to ensure the party did not pay for items that were unrelated to party business," Rubio said in a written statement...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has a conservative media problem. Rubio’s past support for immigration reform infuriated some of the big-name conservative media personalities who backed his upstart Tea Party bid in 2010, and they’re taking retribution now that he’s rising in the presidential polls.

We can talk all we like about national polls and Iowa polls and New Hampshire polls, and Ben Carson and Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But among the bookmakers, there’s only one hot bet right now, and it’s Marco Rubio. Florida’s junior senator has surged into a commanding lead in the betting for the Republican nomination for president following last week’s strong showing in the CNBC debate. Bookmakers are now giving Rubio an astonishing 40% or better chance of becoming the nominee — nearly four times as high as they were rating him just three months ago, before the debates...

FULL TITLE: MARCO RUBIO TO JORGE RAMOS: I WILL KEEP OBAMA’S FIRST EXECUTIVE AMNESTY IN PLACE UNTIL LEGISLATIVE AMNESTY ENACTED In a little-noticed interview earlier this year with Univision’s Jorge Ramos, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) declared that, as President, he would keep Barack Obama’s executive amnesty for DREAMers in place until it was permanently codified through legislation. Rubio said, in part: DACA…applies to young people that arrived in this country at a very young age before they were adults and I don’t think we can immediately revoke that… I’m not calling for it to be revoked tomorrow, or this week,...