Florida Sen. Marco Rubio issued a new line of attack on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in comments made to reporters on the campaign trail in Iowa.
Rubio’s blistering criticism of the Texas senator came in response to a reporter’s question about Cruz’s legal defense of a Chinese company accused of stealing intellectual property from an American company. Cruz provided the legal defense before he became an elected official.
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With under one week to go until Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus, Rubio seized on the opportunity to attack his rival Republican presidential candidate.
“When Ted Cruz had to choose, as a lawyer, he was choosing to represent the Chinese,” Rubio said. “I mean, he represented a Chinese company that stole secrets and a product from an American company. And so you can’t go around saying you’re tough on China but then have a legal record in which you were paid a lot of money to defend the Chinese who had taken a product away from an American unjustly, unfairly, and illegally.”
Rubio’s criticism of Cruz’s relationship with the Chinese is new material for the 2016 presidential campaign trail, but Cruz survived similar attacks from Republican opponents en route to the U.S. Senate.
Jeff Roe, Cruz’s presidential campaign manager, worked against Cruz during the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas and used the same line of attack as Rubio. Roe was reportedly the man behind a mailer that highlighted Cruz’s defense of the Chinese company with the headline, “Ted Cruz: Killing American Jobs, Deceiving Texans.”
Four years after Cruz survived Roe’s attacks, the two men have joined forces to fight off an opponent raising the familiar line once again.
Cruz ranks first in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings. Rubio ranks third.
