Sen. Marco Rubio made it clear he hopes to turn his campaign around with a victory in the Florida primary victory in eight days, comparing Donald Trump to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at length.
During both a press conference and a rally Monday, Rubio tied Trump to Crist, his opponent in the 2010 Senate race, repeatedly. Rubio said Trump was cut from the same cloth as the former governor, now a Democrat. Rubio also talked up the importance of the primary next Tuesday.
“It always comes down to Florida,” Rubio told supporters in Tampa multiple times Monday evening. He is predicting victory.
“Donald reminds me a lot of Charlie Crist — a guy who was ahead of me significantly. Actually, he reminds me of him because he supported him,” Rubio told reporters only minutes before the rally. “He gave Charlie Crist a lot of money when he was running against me.”
By playing the Crist card, Rubio is trying to counterattack a new ad released by Trump earlier Monday, which attacks Rubio for being an absentee senator as well as his financial history, particularly his use of a credit card given to him by the Republican Party of Florida. The minute-long ad referred to the Florida senator as “Corrupt Marco Rubio.”
“It’s almost identical to the attacks Charlie Crist used against me in 2010,” Rubio said. “People in Florida are aware of all those things. They’ve all been looked at up and down, back and forth between 2010 and very recently, and I don’t think they’re going to have an impact.”
Rubio’s campaign pushed back against the Trump ad with a statement, pointing out that Trump suggested in 2012 that Rubio should be former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s running mate.
“First, Donald Trump gave big bucks to Charlie Crist in 2010 and now he’s recycling the same false and negative attacks about Marco. Charlie Crist’s and Donald Trump’s con didn’t fool Floridians in 2010 and it won’t fool them now,” said campaign spokesman Joe Pounder. “These attacks didn’t even stop Trump himself from saying Mitt Romney should pick Marco as his vice president just two years later.”
According to the latest Monmouth poll, Rubio continues to trail Trump but the gap between the two shrinking. Trump currently leads with 38 percent support to Rubio’s 30 percent. The Florida senator is leading by a wide margin in early voting. Rubio tops Trump among early voters with 48 percent support to the real estate mogul’s 23 percent.
