Conservative TV and radio host Glenn Beck has endorsed Ted Cruz. He’s appeared at rallies for Cruz and spoken passionately about the need to elect a constitutional conservative like the Texas senator. He’s suggested electing either Hillary Clinton or Marco Rubio would inspire a “violent revolution.” Earlier this week, he even fasted for the sake of Cruz’s campaign. But during Thursday night, Beck seemed hungrier for Marco Rubio.
“Rubio is killing it,” Beck wrote on Twitter, not halfway through the Republican debate in Houston. And by “it,” Beck might as well have said “Donald Trump.” Rubio, after all, had just delivered the line of the night against Trump.
The two GOP rivals were involved in an intense exchange about health care. Trump spoke about getting rid of “the lines” around the states—that is, the laws that make it impossible to purchase health insurance from providers in other states. Rubio challenged Trump to actually describe his plan on health care beyond just getting rid of “the lines.” Trump responded the same way, talking about how removing the lines will create competition. Rubio pushed back for more details, and Trump began to look flustered.
“You’ll have many different plans,” Trump said of insurance policies. “You’ll have competition. You’ll have so many different plans.”
As Trump moved his left hand up and opened his mouth to continue speaking, Rubio cut him off. “Now he’s repeating himself,” he said, with a smile. The crowd went nuts, and Trump looked furious.
It was a terrific moment for Rubio, devastating to Trump and self-deprecating toward himself. After all, it was Rubio who had been called out by Chris Christie at a New Hampshire debate last month for sounding repetitive, a moment that rocked the Florida senator off his game. Trump tried repeatedly during the Houston debate and during his post-debate interview with CNN to cast Rubio as a “choke artist,” but with the Donald seemingly on the march toward Super Tuesday and with his own candidacy on the line, Rubio needed desperately to take on Trump. On that measure, he did anything but choke.
Rubio began the debate with an opening statement that just obliquely took on Trump. He argued that “as part of this primary, we have to find out our identity as a party and as a movement.”
It was a theme Rubio repeated in his much weaker closing statement, and the tone suggested that news reports earlier on Thursday were right that he was not planning to take on Trump directly.
That changed just a few minutes later. Moderator Wolf Blitzer began with questions about illegal immigration. Blitzer gave Cruz the opportunity to filet Trump over his promise to let the “good ones” among illegal immigrants back into the country, the Texan simply argued against the policy of forgiveness without addressing Trump directly. So Blitzer turned to Rubio, trying to bait him into an argument with Cruz. Rubio instead took the fight to Trump. Hard.
“In 2011, he talked about the need for a pathway to citizenship. In 2012, Donald criticized Mitt Romney, saying that Mitt lost his election because of self-deportation,” Rubio said. “And so even today, we saw a report in one of the newspapers that Donald, you’ve hired a significant number of people from other countries to take jobs that Americans could have filled.”
That was a reference to a New York Times article published Thursday—and promoted by the Rubio campaign that morning—noting that at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, just 17 of 300 American citizens who applied to work as wait or housekeeping staff were hired since 2010. At the same time, the resort did hire cheaper foreign guest-worker labor from countries like Romania.
Trump’s responded lamely that “you could not get help” during the prime vacation season “in those hot, hot sections of Florida.” It was just the beginning of Rubio’s assault. He pointed out seconds later that Trump was the “only person on this stage that has ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally.” He entreated viewers to Google “Trump Polish workers” to learn about the fine. (One of the first articles to return from the search was a 1998 Times story on the workers’ lawsuit against Trump.)
The attacks kept coming. “If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Tower, he’ll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it,” Rubio said. “Such a cute sound bite,” Trump snapped back, but Rubio wasn’t done. “About the trade war, I don’t understand, because your ties and the clothes you make are made in Mexico and in China,” Rubio said.
“All right, you know what?” Trump said, looking more and more agitated.
“Why don’t you make them in America?” Rubio shot back. “Because they devalue their currency,” Trump said, repeatedly, as he pointed out that Rubio didn’t “know a thing about business.”
“Well, I don’t know anything about bankrupting four companies,” Rubio said.
After that, things got even crazier. You have to see the transcript to believe:
RUBIO: I don’t know anything about… TRUMP: You know why? RUBIO: … starting a university, and that was a fake university. BLITZER: One at a time. TRUMP: First of all… BLITZER: One at a time. TRUMP: … first of all, that’s called a… RUBIO: There are people who borrowed $36,000… BLITZER: Hold on. One at a time, Mr. Trump. RUBIO: … to go to Trump University, and they’re suing now — $36,000 to go to a university… TRUMP: And by the way — and by the way… RUBIO: … that’s a fake school. TRUMP: … and by the way… RUBIO: And you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump… TRUMP: … I’ve won most of the lawsuits. RUBIO: That’s what they got for $36,000. BLITZER: All right, I want to move on.
It was a complete airing of the opposition research book on Trump, and Trump didn’t seem to have seen it coming.
That’s not to say Cruz didn’t take on the Donald himself. In a later exchange on health care, Cruz expertly prosecuted Trump’s liberal positions, pulling out the businessman’s past statements and positions, one after another. Trump could not bat away the attacks quickly enough. Cruz also argued that Trump would be a disastrous candidate for Republicans in the general election, pointing to the numerous polls that show him performing the worst against Hillary Clinton among the potential GOP nominees.
“He can’t prosecute the case against Hillary, and we can’t risk another four years of these failed Obama policies by nominating someone who loses to Hillary Clinton in November,” Cruz said.
But it was Rubio who seemed totally focused on taking down Trump, from beginning to end. And it was Rubio who seemed to rattle Trump the most. In a later exchange about Israel and the Palestinians, Rubio took on Trump for claim he would be “neutral” in the dispute. Trump responded by once again mocking Rubio on his “meltdown” at the New Hampshire debate and talking up his skills as a negotiator. That’s when Rubio interrupted.
“He thinks the Palestinians are a real estate deal,” Rubio said.
“Okay, no, no, no, a deal is a deal,” Trump sputtered.
“A deal is not a deal when you’re dealing with terrorists,” Rubio shot back. “Have you ever negotiated with terrorists?” The audience, as it did several times after a skewering of Trump, roared in applause.
