The governor was the featured guest at the breakfast before Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee hosted by Fox Business Network anchors and Wall Street Journal Editor Gerard Baker.
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Both Florida candidates denied any kind of snub during Tuesday night’s debate, which generated an oft-tweeted piece of video that appears to show Bush brushing off a Rubio approach during a commercial break. After good reviews for his debate performance (and bad ones for Bush), that has changed.
Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign is slamming Jeb Bush for making “phony attacks” on the Florida senator.
The pressure is much more on Bush tonight than Rubio. I’m so proud of his enthusiasm. Bush, especially, targeted the former secretary of state, saying twice in quick succession that Clinton “wants to double down” on Dodd-Frank and banking regulation, and later said she wanted to suppress the energy sector.
Rubio and aides said they expect attacks because of his rise in the polls, past Bush but behind Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Trump’s favorite political punching bag, fellow Republican Presidential nominee Jeb Bush, admitted that he would play the role of murderer in a very specific, extremely hypothetical situation.
Polls following the last GOP debate have showed that voter confidence in Rubio shot up after Rubio defended himself against Bush’s attack – and support for Bush seems to be dropping. Its top strategist, Mike Murphy, would not detail its strategy but did not dispute that Rubio was a main target. A TV ad by his Super PAC planned for key states emphasizes his experience.
He would not endorse a presidential candidate at this point, saying he’s concentrating on helping to strengthen the party.
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For his part, Rubio added Walker’s New Hampshire co-chair Cliff Hurst to his ranks, as well as a number of supporters from Iowa and Drew Johnson of the Chester County Republican committee in SC. The NY Times reported that, though Bush had warmly endorsed Rubio in his 2010 Senate campaign, the Bush team was now planning a $20 million negative ad blitz against the senator.
