Marco Rubio was roundly criticized by insiders for his debate performance Saturday night, but he was back on the New Hampshire campaign trail Sunday trying to regain some momentum. “As I said to someone recently, ‘I engage at a time of my choosing.’ I chose last night to engage with Senator Rubio because the stakes are so high here in New Hampshire”.
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Rubio was rattled by Christie’s debate onslaught Saturday, repeating his standard critique of President Barack Obama several times and playing into Christie’s argument that the first-term senator is a scripted, inexperienced politician from a do-nothing Congress.
Trump, who finished second to Cruz in Iowa, was pleased with his debate performance and place atop New Hampshire’s Republican polls, and again called for the U.S. to reinstitute waterboarding and even harsher treatment for interrogating foreign prisoners.
“The races here in my many years covering New Hampshire primaries are always fluid and there’s always some kind of surprise the polls did not pick up”, Spiliotes said.
Mr Christie told the audience: “That’s the memorised 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him”. “There it is everybody”. “When I’m elected president this will become once again the single greatest nation in the history of the world”.
“Leadership. You learn this, you learn it by doing it”, he declared “It’s not something that you just go up, and on the job do it”. “You can say what you want I have no doubt that it does work in term of information and other things”, Trump insisted to Tapper, though it’s worth noting that torture doesn’t actually work when it comes to gathering useful intelligence from prisoners.
“Well, I was going for Peyton Manning, but now I’m rooting for Carolina”, Rubio said. “I think the experience is not just what you did but how it worked out”.
Bush also said if he wins he will not constantly blame his problems on President Barack Obama, as Obama has done against his brother, former President George W. Bush.
When Mr Rubio repeated the same line, Mr Christie sought to reinforce the charge that his opponent is so inexperienced that he relies on well-worn talking points and can not think on his feet.
“I think so”, Trump said when asked if he was “taking the lumps out”.
Andy Smith, executive director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said the Christie counter-punch in the debate was the obvious big story of the final 72 hours of the primary season.
“There it is”, Christie said.
“We are never going to defeat Hillary Clinton in November unless we unite the party and the only way we’re going to do that is with a candidate who has a message that can bring the Republican Party together”, he said.
Kasich is between second and fourth in most polls here in New Hampshire, and he, like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Christie, both benefit greatly from Rubio not wrapping up the election so fast. “It’s what I believe and it’s what I’m going to continue to say”, Rubio said.
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Christie was at his strongest when clashing with Rubio, but he also hit his marks when he wasn’t on the offensive.
