It’s less than 24 hours old, but the feud between Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio hasn’t focused on policy or big ideas in the GOP race.
Bodily functions have been the big issue instead, with the two using them as imagery during massive rallies before supporters in Texas on Friday.
A night after pounding Trump repeatedly over his lack of specifics on issues and his repetition, Rubio kept up the hits while tossing in a bit of comedy during a rally in Dallas, telling supporters that Trump requested a full-length mirror to “make sure his pants weren’t wet” after the broadsides.
“He called me Mr. Meltown,” Rubio told supporter. “Let me tell you something last night during one of the breaks, two of the breaks, he went backstage. He was having a meltdown.”
“First he had this little makeup thing, applying like makeup around his mustache because he had one of those sweat mustaches,” Rubio said. “Then he asked for a full-length mirror. I don’t know why, because the podium goes up to here, but he wanted a full-length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet, I don’t know.”
Only hours later after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed the real estate tycoon, Trump panned the Florida senator for profusely sweating during the debate, a line he carried over from post-debate remarks to CNN.
“The problem with Marco — he’s a choke artist. He chokes, and he did it in front of Chris Christie. I’ve never seen anything like that,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo minutes after the debate. “I was standing right next to him, I look over and say, ‘are you OK?’ It looked like he just came out of a swimming pool he was soaking wet.”
“He’s a meltdown guy. I mean, I’m looking at him and he’s pouring sweat. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump told the host. “I don’t know what the problem is, but he’s just pouring down sweat. We have to have somebody that doesn’t sweat.”
Trump echoed those comments during a rowdy rally where he targeted Rubio at length, before turning his attention to Rubio’s infamous grabbing of a water bottle during his response to the State of the Union in 2013,
“He choked both times,” Trump said referring to the two incidents. “But the one time I’m right next to him, and I looked at the puddle on the ground and I said what is that? What is it?!”
In the middle of his speech to supporters in Fort Worth, Trump grabbed a water bottle, held it out before the crowd and yelled “It’s Rubio!” while proceeding to down a swig and throw the bottle aside.
It is unknown when the topics of perspiration or urination will crop up again in the race.
