Marco Rubio turned a familiar line of attack against Donald Trump at Thursday night’s GOP debate, tripping the Republican frontrunner for repeating the same detail about his health care platform and passing it off as his plan in full.
The exchange began when Rubio explained his own plan to replace Obamacare, calling for a system in which employers can continue to provide coverage or provide tax-free money to employees for a health savings account or plan of their choice. In the absence of such options for individuals, Rubio guaranteed a refundable tax credit that would allow individuals to purchase their own plan.
When the attention turned to Trump for his ideas, he settled on increasing competition by allowing individuals to buy plans across state lines. That’s where things got messy.
“So that’s the only part of the plan? Just the lines, the interstate competition?” Rubio said to Trump.
“No. The nice part about the plan — you’ll have many different plans! You’ll have competition. You’ll have so many different plans,” Trump responded.
And then Rubio threw his haymaker: “Now he’s repeating himself!”
Chris Christie used the same sort of jab against Rubio to great effect in a New Hampshire primary debate weeks ago, but this time the swing came from Rubio and landed on Trump. The crowd received the line well, and Trump never recovered, concluding the segment by repeating himself again to moderator Dana Bash.
When asked if he would like to add anything about his plan, Trump responded, “No! There’s nothing to add! What is there to add?”
