Marco Rubio took on Donald Trump like never before at the Republican presidential debate Thursday night, with Ted Cruz not too far behind.
The Florida senator challenged Trump’s sincerity on his signature issue, immigration. He suggested that if Trump hadn’t inherited $200 million from his family, he would be “selling watches on the street in Manhattan.” And he may have even pulled a Chris Christie on Trump.
Rubio worked to draw out Trump’s lack of command over policy details. He called attention to Trump repeatedly saying he would replace Obamacare by eliminating the “lines” around states, seemingly a reference to allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines.
When Trump shot back that he watched Rubio “melt down” on the stage in the debate before the New Hampshire, the Floridian quipped, “I watched you repeat yourself five times five seconds ago.”
By getting into these exchanges with Trump, Rubio was able to do two things: increase his speaking time and try to position himself as the anti-Trump candidate in a contest that may be defined by whether another candidate can consolidate the vote against the front-runner.
A clash over immigration came early in the debate. Trump tried to draw Rubio and Cruz into a fight with each other over the Gang of Eight, but they both went after the Republican front-runner at their first opportunity.
Rubio hammered Trump on hiring illegal workers, though the billionaire shot back that he was the only person on the stage who hired any workers. Given his turn, Cruz said, “When I was leading the fight against the Gang of Eight, [Trump] was firing Dennis Rodman” on his reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
Rubio also brought up Trump’s criticism of Mitt Romney for talking about self-deportation. Trump defend self-deportation in his response and said he only rebuked Romney for losing the election. Rubio countered that Trump’s position change on immigration was a matter of public record.
In a possible sign of how he felt the debate went, Trump appeared in two lengthy CNN interviews afterward defending himself from several charges leveled by his rivals.
In recent weeks, both Rubio and Trump have attacked Cruz’s trustworthiness and sincerity. This seems to have undercut the Texas senator’s appeal to evangelical and Tea Party voters as a conviction politician and committed conservative. On Thursday night, they were more interested in Trump.
As Trump has won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada after a second-place finish in Iowa, Republican leaders have alternated between seeming resigned to his candidacy and desiring to fight it anew.
The billionaire has been engaged in a Twitter war of words with 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who has called on Trump to release his back tax returns. But Trump has also picked up his first congressional endorsements from Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr., R-Calif., and Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y.
Both Cruz and Rubio have been presenting themselves as the only viable alternative to Trump. Cruz said as recently as Tuesday night that he is the only candidate who has beaten Trump in a state and he is the only won who can defeat him for the nomination. Rubio has stressed his ability to win a general election and has attracted voters interested in electability during the primaries.
This has often caused Rubio and Cruz to work at cross-purposes. Cruz has portrayed Rubio and Trump as Washington deal-makers. Rubio’s supporters have suggested the Florida senator could beat Trump if the Texan would stop splitting the center-right vote. But on Thursday night, they were both critical of Trump.
Rubio frequently mocked Trump’s policy knowledge while Cruz sharply questioned his conservative credentials, bringing up the businessman’s donations to liberal Democrats.
John Kasich hopes he can get back into the race by competing in Midwestern states like Michigan. The Ohio governor finished second in New Hampshire but has struggled since, barely competing in South Carolina or Nevada. Kasich seemed to take the air out of some bad exchanges for Trump by trying to appear above the fray whenever he was questioned Thursday.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson also lags far behind, but he has continued to siphon evangelical and conservative votes away from Rubio and Cruz. His biggest moments Thursday night included offering to look at the whole “fruit salad” of a judicial nominee’s life and complaining about a lack of speaking time.
A new batch of polls released Thursday showed Trump with big leads in New England and Southern states. In most cases, he does not have majority support. But he sometimes is polling in excess of 40 percent, and one survey of Southern states voting on Super Tuesday had him beating Rubio in a two-man race.
That’s a dynamic Rubio and Cruz hope Thursday night’s debate changed.
