Sen. Marco Rubio, hoping to maintain momentum from a solid debate performance last week, said Sunday that he’s fed up with responding to every verbal bomb from GOP front-runner Donald Trump and wants to express things of his own, from a no-exceptions stance on abortion to fighting the Islamic State and enforcing federal drug laws.
Mr. Rubio, who has distanced himself from the comprehensive immigration bill he pushed with a “gang of eight” senators in 2013, earned kudos for his polished answers during Thursday’s showdown among the top 10 contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, an event that drew millions to Fox News.
“We beat ’Sharknado.’ That’s not bad,” Mr. Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But look, the point is that a lot of people got to see high-quality candidates have a debate, the first among several.”
The field has been dominated by Mr. Trump, though, as the flamboyant real estate mogul keeps himself in the headlines — not to mention on top of the polls — with shoot-from-the-hip remarks on immigration, health care and, most recently, whether he’s fair to women.
That has left contenders such as Mr. Rubio reaching for the space to convey their own platforms without being sucked into the Trump vortex.
“If I comment on everything he says, my whole campaign will be consumed by it. That’s all I’ll do all day,” Mr. Rubio said.
“He obviously has the poll numbers that justify him being on the stage, and we’ll let him answer for what he says and so forth,” the Florida Republican added. “At this point, I mean, we’ve got to focus on our message.”
That message includes a push to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest.
He staked out that position during Thursday’s prime-time debate, prompting Democrats to say that it will cost him female voters if he spars with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election.
On Sunday, Mr. Rubio clarified that he would support any bill that provides the exceptions, so long as it reduces the number of abortions.
“And there are those that have that exception,” he said. “What I’ve never done is said I require that it must have or not have exceptions.”
He said that while rape is horrifying, there are morning-after pills and other treatments that can reduce the need for exceptions to zero.
On foreign policy, Mr. Rubio criticized the Iran nuclear deal that Congress will take up when it returns to Washington next week, saying the U.S. has a vested interest in thwarting Tehran that its European allies do not.
“Their interest is simply to open up the market of Iran to their private sector. And our interest is different,” he told NBC. “Our interest has to be different. Because Iran is developing long-range weapons, long-range missiles. And if they become a nuclear power, they can place a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States.”
Mr. Rubio said he has the foresight to be a good commander-in-chief, and that he basically predicted the rise of the Islamic State that has taken a wide swath of Syria and Iraq.
“It’s something I repeatedly warned would happen,” he said. “That there would be a radical jihadist group that would emerge from the vacuum in Syria if we didn’t do something about it. And the president didn’t.”
Mr. Rubio also said he would crack down on the home front by enforcing federal marijuana laws even in states that have moved to legalize the drug for recreational use, although he’s OK with regulated, medicinal pot.
“I’m not in favor of legalizing marijuana,” he said. “I’m not. I never have been.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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