A super PAC supporting Ted Cruz's presidential campaign unveiled a new attack ad aimed at Marco Rubio and his co-authorship of the 2013 Senate immigration bill. Keep the Promise's new ad ties Rubio to President Obama and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
Obama is shown praising the Gang of Eight immigration legislation as having the same principles of comprehensive immigration reform as the president. It also shows Schumer talking about Rubio's role in crafting the bill.
"His fingerprints are all over that bill," Schumer is shown saying. "He understood it, he molded it, he made it."
Rubio's opponents have hammered him on the issue of immigration, leading the Florida senator to issue a formal response of sorts in a Tuesday evening interview with Fox News.
"We're not passing the Gang of Eight bill when I'm president," Rubio said. "First of all because it didn't go far enough, as I said that at the time. I said that was the best you could do in the Senate controlled by Harry Reid. I wanted a conservative House to make it even stronger and I repeatedly warned that it wasn't strong enough on border security. But the bottom line is when I'm President of the United States, we're not going to have amnesty."
The Rubio campaign also directly responded to the Cruz supporters' attack on Tuesday night in a statement calling the ad a "misfire."
"Senator Cruz and his millions in attack ads can't cover up the fact that he will say or do anything to win an election including changing his positions on legalization of illegal immigrants, birthright citizenship, expanding legal immigration, and increasing H-1B visas," said Joe Pounder, Rubio campaign senior adviser, in a statement. "When Marco is president, there will be no amnesty, the border will be secured, and immigration laws will be enforced."
Rubio has faced attacks from all sides in recent days, including from supporters of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Rubio ranks third in the Washington Examiner's newest GOP presidential power rankings behind Donald Trump and Cruz.