For months, Donald Trump has continuously bullied opposing candidates, calling them names and making fun of their appearances. And apparently Marco Rubio has finally had enough, and decided to fight fire with fire. The sparring began at Thursday's CNN Republican debate in Houston, and continued on Twitter for several days. Trump taunted Rubio with a string of tweets (some of which were misspelled), calling him a "lightweight" and several other names. This is not out the ordinary for Trump, but this time Rubio responded by mocking Trump's misspelled tweets and saying Trump "wet his pants" during the debate. Rubio has continued these attacks on Trump, probably both to accumulate non-Trump voters and because he's fed up with just taking heat from Trump. During a Sunday night rally at Roanoke College in Virginia, he said, "Donald is not going to make America great, he's going to make America orange." A clear jab at Trump's awful spray-tan, this is almost something you could imagine Trump saying about someone else. Rubio was also quoted making a response to one of Trump's recent insults, saying, "Now the other thing he says, he's always calling me Little Marco. And I'll admit he's taller than me. He's like 6'2, which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5'2. Have you seen his hands? They're like this. And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can't trust them." This is a huge insult to Trump's manhood, something that he clearly tries to overcompensate for. It is definitely an interesting approach by Rubio to bully the bully, and we will have to see if it pays off in the upcoming primaries.
Do you think Rubio chose the right approach to bully the bully? Will it work, or will voters just view Rubio as immature for stooping to Trump's level?
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/28/politics/marco-rubio-donald-trump-make-america-orange/index.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/02/donald-trump-marco-rubio/471402/
16 comments:
Typically I would say that this was a bad mood to stoop to Trumps level, but seeing how the American people have been responding so positively to Trump's constant chirping, I am beginning to wonder what actually is the right or wrong thing to do as a presidential candidate. With Trump dominating Super Tuesday after having won seven states, maybe using Trump's aggressive strategy isn't such a bad idea for Rubio. Having only been victorious in one state, Rubio may truly want to consider a change in his campaign strategy and this may be the way to do it, but only time will tell if this new strategy will have a benefit or not.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-a-fateful-super-tuesday-polls-have-opened-across-the-south-and-new-england/2016/03/01/995c7ec4-df64-11e5-846c-10191d1fc4ec_story.html
I understand why Rubio would take this approach because it seems that Trump's idiotic and aggressive attacks against the other candidates seems to only help him gain more support. Like Kyle said, in this election season, it's unclear of how the ideal president is supposed to behave. However, I don't think this strategy will work for Rubio. No one can attempt to emulate the phenomenon that is Donald Trump. If Hillary was using the same language as Trump, people would be outraged, yet when Trump acts as he does, there are no repercussions. The reason this strategy works is because Trump is a celebrity, not a politician. Trump's supporters like that as an "outsider" he is honest and unapologetic. While this image is false, people continue to eat it up. Rubio's shift in strategy has so far seemed ineffective considering he took home just Minnesota while Trump dominated with 7 states, totaling 319 delegates. It will be interesting to see what Rubio's last-ditch effort will be to seize the momentum from Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/12/the-phenomenon-that-is-donald-trump-in-1-picture/
http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results
As Kyle and Ally have mentioned, it is very unclear how an ideal president should act considering the unpredictability of this year's race. With that being said, Rubio probably views it as a good idea to counterattack Trump since the strategy has been working in Trump's favor throughout the campaign. However, I do not think that this will work in Rubio's favor because no one views him in this way; it is obvious that he is testing the waters with a new method, and it seems a little bit silly. I don't blame him at all-- I even give him some credit-- for wanting to stand up to the bully that is Donald Trump. But, I don't see this strategy ending in success for him based on his previous nature as a reasonable, verbally non-combative guy.
As everyone else has pointed out I completely understand why Rubio has made this sudden shift in his approach, ultimately deciding to directly attack Trump. For the majority of this campaign, Trump has gone off on all the candidates, with very few taking him on directly, and none being successfully. At this point in the race drastic measures have to be taken in order to slow down the Trump machine. Rubio, I feel, sees this as his last chance really to draw in the support of those against Trump, in an attempt to give him an edge in the polls. Unfortunately this has not appeared to be successful yet, as Trump was able to win in 7 of 11 states on Super Tuesday. Although I hope that we will start to see this new plan of attack paying off in the weeks to come. Furthermore, in Rubio taking such a strong stand now against Trump, has given him a lot of publicity, helping to draw more attention to his campaign. There is a large portion of people who are adamantly opposed to Trump, and thus enjoy Rubio's attacks and feel that they are more than deserved. Trump has been allowed to get away with far too much from the beginning, and I hope that it isn't too late for him to be put in his place.
I understand Rubio is angry and Trump is a bully and all of this, as Amanda mentioned. Additionally, before the debate many media sources were commenting that Rubio should finally take a stand against Trump. After the Nevada caucus, Cruz and Rubio spent a fair amount of time insulting one another and avoiding attacks on Trump for fear of how it may affect their campaign. Rubio finally decided that enough was enough during the last debate. However, the results of Super Tuesday in no way indicate that this boosted his polls numbers or changed the direction of his campaign. Rubio won in only one state and Trump has simply continued to barrage him with insults and negative comments. Furthermore, Rubio is no longer in a good place to insult Trump as he has yet to show clear and consistent victory over him. After the last primaries Cruz made some undercutting comments that those who had not won a state should drop out of the presidential race. Cruz attacked Trump to an extent but more so called out Rubio to drop out of the race and quit splitting the anti-Trump vote. However, Rubio has been trying to convince his donors that he will soon be seeing victories in Florida and Michigan. Sadly, both these states have Trump with a substantial lead. Rubio tried to attack Trump and earn some support, and it was a valiant and understandable effort, but the effort is not showing in the polls and it seems as though Trump has the upper hand with being able to bully his opponents. Additionally, he just lost the support of Fox News which is just one more blow to his campaign.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/marco-rubio-just-lost-fox-news.html#
At this point I honestly just feel bad for the Republican party. Their front runner Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, a candidate who has been running low in polls recently, are acting like high school boys. Not only does their twitter feud suggest their lack of maturity and their ability to maintain composure but it raises major concern for how the Republican party could trust either candidates to run an entire country when they can’t even pull themselves together. I don't see a way Trump and Rubio could prove to the American people they are worth the presidency if they spend their down time feuding with one another. The lack of dignity and decency they demonstrate is a disgrace to the Republican party and I can only feel bad for the GOP. Brian raised the question if Rubio’s arguments in an effort to defend himself would work or if they would drop his level immaturity as it appears to the American people, and I believe that both are possibilities. For me, I do not see how anyone could not view both Rubio and Trump as immature for they blatantly act in a juvenile and childish manner. However people could swing this the other direction and see Rubio as a candidate who defends himself against Trump who is notorious for his shallow mockery. But we all know this is not the case, and Super Tuesday proved that once again Trump dominated in several states, wheras Rubio only won a single state. And here we are watching a legitimate candidate to once again be drowned by the immaturity of a multi billionaire real estate mogul who greatest ammunition are his childish remarks. Oh, a tragedy for the Republicans.
Trump definitely is a tough opponent—his wit and confidence allows him to worm his way out of any insult no matter how much people make fun of him. We can see proof of this in Trump’s victory in 7 states on Super Tuesday. Rubio may be risking his presidential image by utilizing Trump’s own tactics against him, but Rubio’s earlier strategies definitely weren't working well enough. He realized that if he really wanted to win, he had to change something about the way he responded to Trump’s aggressive attacks. Rubio may have been encouraged to take this route after seeing the reaction to his performance on the latest debate. With Mr. Trump’s great lead at this time, Rubio had little chance left to take on the front-runner in a direct way and frame the race as a two-man contest between himself and Trump. During a rally in Texas, Rubio addressed the latest debate saying, “We unmasked him last night. And let me tell you, it’s time for you to unmask him as well. I bet you, you all know, you all have friends who are thinking about voting for Donald Trump. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.” For the moment, the tactic worked. CNN carried most of Mr. Rubio’s remarks live, and then replayed them several times afterward. Time will tell if these strategies will hurt him or help Rubio, but in my opinion, I completely see where Rubio is coming from in his decision to attack Trump. The strategy has definitely worked for Trump, but it looks like it’s harder for Rubio to pull it off successfully.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/02/26/marco-rubio-calls-gop-front-runner-donald-trump-a-con-artist/
As Caitlyn B said, we can’t be sure of how the presidential candidates should be acting based on the current unpredictable nature of this year’s election. Yes, I think that Rubio did the right thing because up until now, no other candidate has taken a jab at Trump and nothing has attempted to stop his bullying. I think that while its immature and quite unprofessional, to say the least, that Rubio will most likely not lose any supporters for standing up to trump. Stooping down to Trump’s level at this point in this presidential race isn’t really anything worth turning heads about. Trump has been attacking other candidates from the very beginning and this isn’t anything new or mean that Rubio added to the playing field. While this strategy has worked for Trump, there is reason to believe that the American people necessarily want this kind of banter and insulting nature in the race for Presidency.
Without a doubt, Trump has made numerous rude and unnecessary comments and tweets throughout this presidential election. Trump definitely does not have a filter. He says what is on his mind. That being said, I think people are used to Trump's comments as it is his personality. In contrast, when a candidate like Rubio makes rude comments and bullies other candidates people take a closer look as it is not as expected. I give Rubio a lot of credit for sticking up for himself and finally giving Trump a taste of his own medicine. I admire the fact that Rubio is not afraid to speak his mind. I definitely agree with Kyle and his statement that he is not sure what is the right or wrong thing to do as a presidential candidate. This presidential election is unique in the fact that nobody is certain in how it will pan out. Trump is a top Republican candidate and therefore I do not think it is a bad idea for Rubio to take a page out of his book and try and see if his firing back and bullying tactics will work.
Brian,
I think that is an interesting point you made about Rubio's strategy being "bullying the bully." I believe that standing up to an adversary with the gall and brashness as Trump does is the only way to get his followers to think differently. Rubio pointing out in the most recent debate that Trump has been involved in a variety of shady business dealings such as Trump University, and his legal troubles regarding hired illegal immigrants, has cast a shadow of doubt against the false veil that Trump is honest, and straight-forward just because he's not a politician. To be honest, I don't see the logic in that a wealthy conglomerate executive is more believable than a politician -- all it shows is Republicans' disdain with their party.
To respond directly to your comment, I do think Rubio's strategy is working. However, I don't think that Rubio has a shot to win the nomination. I do think that his tactics are bringing forth a new way of thinking on Trump, hence the recently trending Twitter topics such as #NeverTrump and #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain. Additionally, the attacks on Trump are spurning forth a lot of anti-Trump media coverage such as Jon Oliver's feature story on Trump's deceitful ways on his show "Last Week Tonight." I think that this type of coverage can make a Hillary win guaranteed on Election Day. In the end, people will realize how much better of a candidate Hillary is.
The general consensus has been that being the bully to the bully will not benefit Rubio, I actually disagree and I think that will actually help to get him some more support. I think there are many voters out there who are tired of Trump's "game" that is the presidential campaign, and seeing that someone is willing to fight back instead of being passive aggressive or even in Governor Christie's case, endorsing him, and that will persuade them to join Rubio's side. I'm not sure exactly how much of the electorate that would convince, and it might be difficult to make an impact at this point, with Trump and Cruz winning multiple states already, but I think it helps to show that Trump isn't "invincible" and anyone can fight fire with fire. There will be a group out there that views Rubio as immature, and that won't help his cause, but I think people need to understand that Trump is worse and shouldn't have as much standing as he does. He has turned the Republication nomination race into a joke. Running for the most important office in the country shouldn't be a joke.
I think that Rubio has tried approaching Trumps trash talk in multiple ways some more successful and than others. In my opinion, Trump is the ultimate bully, he can bully the other candidates while still keeping a strong support base and can hurt their numbers without effecting his own. Rubio has tried to respond on social media but has only been one-up'd by trump each time. In my opinion his most successful response to Trump has been in the debates. Trump has attempted to use the debates to publicly embarrass the opposing candidates. Name calling and constant criticism of the persons character and appearance has been his go-to insult. Rubio best offense is with policy. An example of this was when the issue of peace in the middle east came up during one of the debates. Rubio knew this was an opportunity to bait trump into an opposing response where he shouldn't. Rubio for a long time has been very pro Israel, so when the question of making peace between Israel and Palestine came up he confidently took an approach saying that this is a tough situation and it needs to be a bigger focus. He said that you have to choose a side and negotiation skills is not enough to make peace between the two. Trumps response was that he is a great negotiate and he thinks he will have no problem cutting a peace deal between the two. Rubio knew Trump would go there and responded almost instantly saying how Trump thinks he can just go to the Palestinians and cut deal. He said well it's not that easy to negotiate with terrorists and just have them sign a peace treaty with Israel. He didn't let Trump digress from the topic and made sure he took advantage of the opportunity. I feel that this is a perfect example of how Rubio needs to take advantage of these opportunities when they arise and use his political experience and knowledge to quite Trump and his anti politics approach.
Like others before me, I also recognize how frustrating it must be to be constantly berated by Mr. Trump. However, I can think of no other response but to call out any candidate who "stoop to Trump's level," as Kyle put it, as childish. The race for the presidency, though flashier now than our Founding Fathers ever dreamt it would be, is a competition to become the leader of our nation. How can we trust someone who is so petty and cruel to run our country efficiently and with composure? The simple answer is that we cannot. However, it is not only Mr. Trump who has shown himself unfit to be President based on his immature jabs at fellow candidates, but now Rubio and Christie have also proven themselves to be too childish to be President. Although I disagree with Rubio's policies and I find his charisma to be phony, I may give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. There is no denying that most of the GOP candidates have been behaving like petulant children as of late, but Rubio has presented himself better before. With that, though I find myself somewhere in the middle, I must say that I think the American people will likely let Rubio's lapse in judgment slide.
P.S. It's actually pretty funny that Rubio called Trump out for "having one of those sweat mustaches," when there's nary a time where Rubio isn't sweating during a debate (Collins).
Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/02/marco-rubio-donald-trump-con-artist-219843
First overall, Donald Trump is the ultimate bully in this year's Republican debate and I believe that what Rubio is doing is the right thing. Secondly, in life you don't survive by subjecting/giving in to a bully's actions upon you, you must be willing to stand up and fight back no matter the cost. With regards to Rubio, the mindset/gameplan of attacking Donald Trump will be actually good for Rubio's political career. Rubio is still a young politician (as well as being young in general), but standing up and fighting back is a great way that he can show the American public that he is tough minded and doesn't let anyone attack him without being retaliated back. Rubio can learn from this experience and use the knowledge and skills that he learned from this presidential race to help in the future if he decides to run again. I believe that this will help Rubio gain supporters since American people like a president/politician that is able to hold their ground and fight through adversity/criticism.
I believe that Rubio is probably trying to make as much noise as possible, whether it be positive or negative publicity it doesn't matter for Rubio. Not only that, but Rubio has made consistent attempts to insult Trump, all seem to be unsuccessful at making a dent in Trump's campaign. I agree with Stephen that not all of Rubio's remarks have been negative. He did bring up the issues Trump is facing about Trump University, as well as Trump hiring illegal workers from Poland. Rubio pointing out issues such as Trump University is what we need for the voters, and I think if Rubio keeps making the right arguments, he will see a rise in the polls. I don't think it's immature unless Rubio is going to make remarks such as Trump has small hands. Which he did say in a debate. All in all, the whole campaign is more a less an insult match.
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