Yahoo News is reporting that former Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, has decided to skip the Donald Trump led Republican Convention.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Marco Rubio says the Florida Republican is skipping the GOP Convention in Cleveland. That makes Rubio the latest high-profile Republican to decide not to attend the convention that is preparing to nominate Donald Trump for president.
Rubio spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas says Rubio wants to spend his time campaigning for re-election to his Senate seat. She says Rubio had planned to go to the convention when he wasn’t seeking re-election but now that he’s decided to seek another term he’s focusing on that.
Although some Republicans remain totally blinded by the obvious racist remarks of Donald Trump in reference to the heritage of a federal judge, a small amount of them have seen the light. Marco Rubio, a former Republican presidential candidate, appears to be one of them, and he is apparently pulling away from the leader of his party.
Sen. Marco Rubio wants to make clear that if he speaks at the Republican National Convention this July, he will not be on stage as a Donald Trump surrogate.
“I may not be asked to speak, but if I am at a convention or any Republican gathering for that matter, what I would communicate is the things I believe in,” Rubio said Monday.
He said that no one has reached out to him about a potential speaking slot.
Rubio said his vision is, in some cases, “substantially different from what Donald is offering, and that’s why I’m not sure I’m going to be asked to speak at the convention.”
After Trump’s comments suggested that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel should not preside over a case against Trump University due to his Mexican-American heritage, Rubio was among the GOP lawmakers saying that Trump should stop the rhetoric.
“I’ve never said I would stand and speak on behalf of someone else’s agenda,” Rubio said. “I would speak about the things I believe in, not somebody else’s platform or on behalf of anyone else for that matter.”
It happened so quickly and so quietly that I wasn’t sure exactly what transpired, but it appears that the Chris Christie era in New Jersey is over!
Yes, I know we have to officially endure the Governor until January of 2018, but most of that time will find him drowned out by the presidential race, and by the time that’s over it will be time for candidates to begin announcing their intentions ahead of the June 2017 gubernatorial primaries.
Chris Christie was the main architect of his own downfall, though of course he will blame everyone except himself for his not still competing for president or the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal that has his style written all over it. He banked on being the rude loudmouth in the 2016 race but it turns out that he’s only a piker compared to Donald Trump, Christie’s take-down of Marco Rubio showed that he could use the bully part of the bully pulpit, something that New Jerseyans always knew, but that the rest of the country had to actually see to believe.
The capstone to Christie’s fall, though, was his very quick and very ugly endorsement of Trump not three days after leaving the GOP race. The way he looked standing behind the Donald will be an enduring, iconic image for approximately the next thousand years and will serve as a warning against candidates making major decisions while still in the throes of Stages 1,2,3 and 4 of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s continuum of the terminally ill.
All was not terrible for Chris Christie, though. He was able to use political cronies of both parties to get a state employee pension and benefit reform package through the legislature that has contributed to a four-year reduction in take home pay for a significant slice of New Jersey’s middle class. And he can also point to the fact that he didn’t ask the wealthy to contribute more to solve some of New Jersey’s problems, arguing that they would leave the state. Meanwhile, less-than-wealthy people have left the state because they couldn’t afford to live here.
And then of course there’s that confounded bridge.
Chris Christie will go down in history as a failed governor because he wasted his political capital on his White House bid, when he could have done much more and run in, say, 2020 with a fuller record of accomplishments. He has, though, paved the way for a Democratic sweep in 2017. Bank on that.
Marco Rubio, the defacto brains of the Republican party and favorite son of the Republican establishment, dropped out of his bid to become president a few weeks ago. But now the real reason for him suspending his campaign becomes evident – Rubio cannot spell “United States” and his spell check is apparently not working either.
In a letter to the Chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, Marco Rubio told Peter Goldberg that he does not wish to release the delegates he earned while running for president, thus making sure that his delegates “vote for me on at least the first nominating ballot at the national convention.”
In other words, Rubio is still hoping to become the Republican nominee for president of the United States. But maybe he should first learn to spell “United States” before trying to become its president. It’s United Marco, not “Untied.”
Every time he lost a primary, Marco Rubio talked big, big enough to almost convince his listeners that coming in 3rd or 4th or even last is better than coming in first. But his home state of Florida smacked him in the face on Tuesday by voting for Donald Trump to be president. In his concession speech, Marco Rubio was forced to face the truth, and told the crowd that his campaign was no more.
“While it is not God’s plan that I be President in 2016 or maybe ever and while today while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve even come this far is event of how special America truly is and all the reason more while we must do all that we can to ensure that this nation remains a special place. I ask the people do not give in to the fear, do not give in to the frustration.”
Marco Rubio, trying to save his presidential campaign, did a town hall on MSNBC Wednesday night and was asked a question by an audience member: “If you were to institute your merit-based immigration policy, wouldn’t you be, I mean, shutting out people like your parents?”
Rubio replied, “Yeah, well, you wouldn’t shut them out, but it’s a different process. My parents came in 1956. The world is a different place from 1956.
“When my parents arrived in the U.S. in 1956, my dad had a fourth-grade education, maybe. My mom had about the same. If they came today under those circumstances, they would really struggle to succeed.”
Rubio said that “unless you have a certain level of skill or education, it’s very hard to find a sustainable job” in the 21st-century economy.
“So we always change policies when times change, and immigration policy’s no different,” he added.
“And so, today in the 21st century, the immigration policy has to be primarily based on merit. That doesn’t mean everyone’s a PhD; it does mean when you come in you should be able to prove what skills you’ll be able to bring to the U.S.”
A big fat ZERO! But if you listen to the Rubio campaign, there is still hope for Rubio’s failed campaign. The campaign apparently believes that Florida will decide the winner of the entire Republican nomination process. All the voting before and after Florida, doesn’t matter.
Rubio’s night began by missing the 15-percent threshold for receiving any delegates in Michigan and Mississippi.
He took about 5 percent of the vote in Mississippi and 9 percent in Michigan, running fourth out of four GOP presidential contenders in both states.
Rubio took 18 percent in Idaho, missing the 20-percent threshold for delegates.
Rubio again missed on delegates in Hawaii by placing third.
Rubio sits in a distant third in delegates, hundreds behind Trump and Cruz. He has pinned all of his hopes on his home state, telling supporters that the winner in Florida will likely take the party’s nomination.
Ninety-nine delegates are up for grabs in next Tuesday’s winner-take-all contest in Florida, a significant amount for any candidate seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
I don’t think this is what the GOP had in mind when they made the calendar and rules that would govern the primaries. The party clearly wanted to make it easier for a candidate to consolidate support and win enough delegates so they could then turn their attention to fundraising and the general election. This enabled Trump to win 44 delegates with only 33% of the vote. Nice job.
In the words of Rick Perry, “Oops.”
In the further words of Howard Dean, “AAAAHHHH.”
South Carolina has to be the loudest wake-up call ever recorded in a modern presidential race and the Republican Party elders clearly have no strategy to stop the bleeding. Trump won a fairly convincing victory and rendered the race for second as the only one worth watching. Now that Jeb! has left the race I imagine that phones will be ringing in the Carson and Kasich campaign offices and the person on the other end will not be shy about telling those candidates that their time is gone and that they should rally their supporters around Marco Rubio as the only person who can save the party from its angry candidates. Unless they want to rally around Ted Cruz, but I can’t see that happening.
Meanwhile, on the left side of the docket, Hillary Clinton all but shut the door on Bernie Sanders in Nevada, winning a solid victory in a state that the Democrats will need in the fall. Word is that Harry Reid made some phone calls to union officials saying that it was fine for them not to endorse a candidate, but could the officials at least urge their members to vote for Clinton. That seems to have worked. Now it’s on the South Carolina on Saturday where Hillary has a commanding lead. A win there and on Super Tuesday on March 1 will probably close out Sanders as a serious contender, though I would not be surprised if he continue his campaign until the end.
The upshot is that the Democrats will probably achieve what the GOP had hoped for; a well-funded nominee who has time to unify the party, make nice-nice with their opponent, and start moving to attract the moderate voters who will likely be the keys to their election.
I know that I’m bucking the conventional wisdom at the moment, but I still don’t see Donald Trump being the GOP nominee. I think the GOP will find a way, or at least die trying, to rally around a candidate that they can control and win. After all, 65% of the party’s voters aren’t voting for Trump. Someone has to be able to harness that between now and June. If I’m wrong, then the GOP is in big time trouble.
But time is running out. Beware the Ides of March.
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio (L) speaks as businessman Donald Trump (R) listens during the Republican U.S. presidential candidates debate sponsored by ABC News at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire February 6, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri . SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters' editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.
Besides standing on stage next to Donald Trump with his 3 inch heels on and still looking too short for the podium, Marco Rubio had other issues at Saturday’s Republican debate, namely Chris Christie.
On the days leading up to Saturday’s debate, Chris Christie laid focus on Rubio, giving the young Florida Republican some attention Rubio probably didn’t want. Christie actively tried to re-coin the phrase “Boy in the Bubble” to describe Marco Rubio – the robotic Republican presidential candidate, who is apparently well versed in the art of memorizing and regurgitating portions of written speeches to answer questions. Christie zeroed in and chritcized Rubio and an inexperienced first-term senator who has no place running for president.
In the last Republican debate before New Hampshire goes to the polls, Christie seized the opportunity and continued hitting Rubio.
“Marco, the thing is this,” Christie said during one heated exchange early in the night, “when you’re president of the United States, when you’re a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person.”
The trouble for Rubio began soon after the debate started when the ABC News moderators asked Christie about Rubio’s experience in the U.S. Senate, and Christie pressed his case.
Rubio critics have made much of the fact that his experience is akin to that of much-derided Democratic President Barack Obama, elected in 2008 when a first-term senator.
Rubio’s defense was that his and Obama’s world views are different, not that Obama has simply led the country down the path it is on because of inexperience.
“Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing,” Rubio said.
When Rubio repeated the same line again, Christie sought to reinforce the charge that Rubio is so inexperienced that he relies on well-worn talking points and cannot think on his feet.
“There it is. There it is. The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody,” Christie said.
Rubio repeated the line enough that someone created a Twitter profile called
I’m not really the type to say “I told you so,” but I indeed told you so on numerous occasions that Donald
Trump would not be the GOP nominee and neither will Ted Cruz.
Trump’s second place finish in Iowa is but the first blow to his campaign, because while he was battering Cruz with ads and withering sarcasm, Marco Rubio, who is no moderate, snuck up on him and finished a very strong third. This gives the GOP alternatives to Trump and my sense is that they will take advantage of that.
Iowa also marked the beginning of either the beginning or the end of some of the more moderate Republican campaigns. Jeb, Kasich and Christie absolutely must come in second or third in the Granite State if they are to have any traction for the rest of the month and to stick around for Super Tuesday. By next week the GOP field should lose Fiorina, Carson and Paul, and their supporters will have to go somewhere. My guess is that they won’t go to Trump or Cruz.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Bernie and Hillary were locked in a tight race that likely serves Sanders better because the polls said he would lose by a small margin. To lose by an even smaller margin, or perhaps to eke out a small win, puts Clinton back a bit going into New Hampshire where Bernie is expected to do very well.
Funny how actual voting can really mess up a narrative. Onward we go.
Have you seen Marco’s heels? No joke. The Republican presidential wannabe is wearing boots with, like 4 inch heels to appear taller. The man has issues and his height is just one of them.
Well Jeb’s SuperPac is zeroing in on Rubio and it’s bringing the short Republican’s heels to the forefront. “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” a female voice sings. “You keep leavin’ when you oughta be votin’. Now what’s work is work, but you ain’t earned it yet”
Republicans hate Obamacare, although many of them are enjoying the benefits of the President’s Healthcare reform law. That said, Republicans would gladly vote for any presidential candidate who promises to end Obamacare and rid them of this life-saving healthcare.
That said, the Marco Rubio’s campaign is going a step further to get the support of these Republicans. Rubio’s campaign is claiming that Marco Rubio is the only candidate who managed to “kill Obamacare!”
Yes, for those of us enjoying real healthcare for a change, Marco Rubio apparently killed the thing and we are now finding this out.
That said, Yahoo News is reporting that some 11.7 million signed up for Marketplace plans, the Obamacare website estimates, while around 17.6 million people were covered under the ACA as of September. Open enrollment for 2016 opened on Nov. 1 and ends on Jan. 31. As of Dec. 21, upward of 9 million qualified health plans are thought to be confirmed for 2016.
But, according to Team Marco, Marco Rubio killed Obamacare. Who Knew?
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