New York Times
By Jeremy Peters and Ashley Parker
February 28, 2016
It
is the kind of campaign he said he would never run. But Senator Marco
Rubio, seeing his path to the Republican nomination grow narrower with
each contest, has determined
that the only way to beat Donald J. Trump is to fight like him: rough,
dirty and mean.
The
acidity coming from Mr. Rubio these days, and the gleefully savage way
Mr. Trump has responded, have sent an already surreal presidential
campaign lurching into the
gutter with taunts over perspiration, urination and self-tanner.
On
Sunday, the hits were more substantive, but no less aggressive: Mr.
Rubio scoffed at Mr. Trump’s clothing line — “those tacky ties” — and
criticized him for making
them in China. He said Mr. Trump’s education business, Trump
University, was a scam that essentially stole tens of thousands of
dollars from its students. And he expressed astonishment that during a
television interview Sunday morning, Mr. Trump refused to
repudiate the white supremacist David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan.
“We
cannot be a party who nominates someone who refuses to condemn white
supremacists,” Mr. Rubio said, to roaring approval from the crowd.
Mr.
Trump, who has been accused of stirring up racial strife, handed his
critics more ammunition on Sunday when he refused the opportunity to
distance himself from Mr.
Duke and the Klan. Asked repeatedly to do so in an interview with CNN,
he demurred. “You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know
nothing about,” he said. “I would have to look.”
Later he backtracked, posting on Twitter, “I disavow.”
Mr.
Rubio’s headfirst lunge into a bout with Mr. Trump is a striking
turnaround that the Florida senator himself calls disappointing. But it
also reflects a conclusion
that his above-the-fray approach was ineffective against a front-runner
who seems to gain popularity with each fight he picks.
“I
had hoped that this would be a campaign only about ideas,” Mr. Rubio
told the crowd of more than 3,000 here, in the far suburbs of
Washington, as he accused Mr. Trump
of being a fraud, a threat to national security and possibly even a
racist.
“I
need your vote Tuesday,” Mr. Rubio told his audience, which was about
as rowdy and animated as any he had drawn. “Friends do not let friends
vote for con artists.”
Virginia
is one of more than 10 delegate-rich states that will vote in the Super
Tuesday contests this week — others include Texas, Georgia, Alabama and
Massachusetts
— most of which Mr. Trump is favored to win.
But
Mr. Trump was not content on Sunday to rest on his polls: He picked up
the endorsement of Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a vehement opponent
of the immigration
overhaul that Mr. Rubio championed in 2013, in a boisterous
late-afternoon rally outside Huntsville, Ala.
“I told Donald Trump, ‘This isn’t a campaign, this is a movement,’ ” Mr. Sessions said, looking out over a crowd of thousands.
Senator
Ted Cruz of Texas, campaigning in Oklahoma, tried to keep himself in
the thick of the Republican fight by attacking Mr. Trump over his use of
foreign workers.
But Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, all but conceding the Super Tuesday
contests, lamented the demolition derby-like state of the primary
contest, hoping his sense of decorum would help him win over voters in
Massachusetts.
On
the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of
Vermont both attacked Mr. Trump, as Mrs. Clinton all but ignored Mr.
Sanders in courting black voters
in Tennessee, while Mr. Sanders, campaigning in Oklahoma and Colorado,
declared that “love trumps hatred.”
Mr.
Rubio has seemed to sense that he could pay a price if he is seen as
engaging in the kind of bullying that Mr. Trump has trademarked.
“These
are facts,” he said, explaining his attacks on Sunday, “about an
individual who wants access to the nuclear codes for America.”
As
they watched Mr. Trump clinch his third straight victory with a win in
the Nevada caucuses last week, Mr. Rubio and his aides concluded that
the only way to beat him
was to get inside his head, by stooping to his level: Taunt, insult,
mock and have a blast doing it.
They seem satisfied that it is working.
“We
came to the conclusion that if being a part of the circus is the price
you have to pay in order for us to ultimately be able to talk about
substantive policy, then
that’s what we’re going to do,” said Todd Harris, a senior Rubio
adviser.
Mr.
Harris noted that Mr. Rubio’s speeches were now being carried live on
television. And if the price of admission, he added, was talking about
“how Trump is a con man,
with a bad spray tan,” so be it.
What has followed is a race that looks more like a variety show than a campaign to elect the most powerful leader on earth.
So far, Rubio supporters seem surprised by, if open to, his change in tone.
Alison
Whiteley, a retiree in her 50s who saw Mr. Rubio speak in Oklahoma City
on Friday, said the race had turned “uglier” this cycle, but she did
not blame Mr. Rubio,
whom she supports. “Rubio would not be acting like this if it wasn’t
for Trump,” she said. “He has to stand up for himself because Trump is
just running all over everybody.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment