Marco Rubio unloaded on Donald Trump at a rally on Friday, attempting to beat Trump at his own game.
Here's one example, from reporter Alysha Love:
.@marcorubio reads #MeanTweets from @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/xBkDSmJL3c
— Alysha Love (@News_with_Love) February 26, 2016
What does Donald Trump do when things go wrong? He takes to Twitter. I have them right here. Let's read some. You'll have fun.
All right. Number one, here's the first one: "Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night." This is true.
"The problem is he is a chocker. And once a chocker, always a choker." I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled choker C-H-O-K-E-R. Chocker.
He called me Mr. Meltdown. Let me tell you something, last night in the debate, during one of the breaks — two of the breaks — he went backstage, he was having a meltdown. First he had this little makeup thing applying, like, makeup around his mustache because he had one of those sweat mustaches. Then, then, he asked for a full-length mirror. I don't know why, because the podium goes up to here. But he wanted a full-length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet — I don't know.
Here are some other quotes, reported by Ed O'Keefe at the Washington Post:
- "It's time to pull his mask off so that people can see what we're dealing with here. What we are dealing with here, my friends, is a con artist. He is a con artist. First of all, he runs on this idea that he is fighting for the little guy. But he has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy. Every business that he's ever run that's gone bankrupt — this guy's bankrupt a casino. How do you bankrupt a casino? How do you bankrupt a casino?"
- "Donald Trump has never punched anyone in the face. Donald Trump was the first guy who begged for Secret Service protection. First guy!"
- "How does this guy, not one tweet but three tweets, misspell words so badly? And I only reach two conclusions: Number one, that's how they spell those words at the Wharton School of Business. Or number two, just like at Trump Tower he must have hired foreign workers to do his tweets."
- "You ever heard of Trump Vodka? You have, well it isn't around anymore. Or Trump Mattress? Or Trump Air? Or Trump Ice? Or Trump Water? Those are all businesses that are gone, but they were disasters. Trump Hot Air — yeah. So, we cannot allow the conservative movement to be taken over by a con artist, because the stakes are too high. … Friends do not let friends vote for con artists."
The props, the zingers, the style — it's all very Trump. But it's hard to blame Rubio for stealing from Trump's handbook. After all, the billionaire has so far won three of four Republican primary elections — and Rubio has won zero.
