President Obama spoke behind a campaign sign reading “Clinton/Kaine” in Florida on Thursday. But Donald Trump wasn’t the only Republican on his mind.
“I’m … confused by Republican politicians who still support Donald Trump. Marco Rubio is one of those people,” the president said. “How does that work? How can you call him a con artist and dangerous and object to all the controversial things he says and then say, ‘But I’m still gonna vote for him?’ C’mon, man!”
At the Democratic convention in July, Obama distinguished Trump from the GOP, saying, “What we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican—and it sure wasn’t conservative.” Ever since, and especially in recent weeks, he has blasted Republicans who didn’t make the same distinction, chastising incumbents like New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte and Ohio senator Rob Portman for not distancing themselves from Trump sooner.
Now, Rubio is receiving the same treatment. Obama called the senator’s continued support of Trump, no matter how qualified, “the height of cynicism.”
“That’s the sign of somebody who will say anything, do anything, pretend to be anybody, just to get elected,” he continued.
But the president is virtually alone in his outside help for Rubio’s challenger, Democratic representative Patrick Murphy. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pulled its remaining advertising dollars from the race this week, a couple of weeks after a Democratic super PAC pulled $6 million of spending.
The withdrawal comes despite surveys that show a competitive election, albeit one in which Rubio has held a consistently modest lead. The RealClearPolitics average of polls has the incumbent ahead by more than four percentage points, but a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday showed him up just two.
Part of the DSCC’s consideration: taking out two other GOP senators with one stone. As Politico reported, “Democrats’ decision to cut bait in Florida is reflection of the belief at the DSCC and in the leadership offices that races in North Carolina and Missouri are more winnable.” And both of those campaigns, in which Richard Burr and Roy Blunt are the incumbents, respectively, are less expensive to contest than the one in Florida.
Obama’s support for Murphy, on the other hand, comes for free. But it’s tied to his larger mission: discredit any vulnerable incumbent still backing the Republican nominee for president.
