Sen. Marco Rubio on Friday attacked GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump as a “con artist” who has spent much of his life sticking it to the “little guy” and that the United States is on the brink of turning over the nuclear codes to an “erratic individual.”
“I can just tell you that a con artist is about to take over the Republican party and the conservative movement, and we have to put a stop to it,” Mr. Rubio, Florida Republican, said on “CBS This Morning.”
“Donald Trump last night had no answers on the issue of health care,” he said. “The media’s pumping him up as some sort of unstoppable force. Donald Trump has portrayed himself now consistently as fighting for the working people, and he has a record of sticking it to working people for 35 years.”
“We’re going to put a stop to it now,” Mr. Rubio said. “There is no way we are going to allow a con artist to take over the conservative movement, and Donald Trump is a con artist.”
Mr. Rubio had spent much of Thursday night’s GOP debate attacking Mr. Trump, notably on his business record, and said without a sizable inheritance, the billionaire businessman would be selling watches in Manhattan.
“This is the most important government job on the planet, and we’re about to turn over the conservative movement to a person that has no ideas of any substance on the important issues, the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual, and the conservative movement to someone who has spent a career sticking it to working people,” Mr. Rubio said on CBS.
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“I will acknowledge that there are some people watching this broadcast that are intrigued by him, that they think he’s a straight talker and he fights for the little guy, but Donald Trump has spent 40 years sticking it to the little guy, or longer, and every time one of those businesses of his failed, you know who didn’t get paid? The little guy that was working for him,” he said.
Speaking on CNN after the debate on Thursday, Mr. Trump dismissed Mr. Rubio as a “meltdown guy” who sweats too much.
“He’s a meltdown guy,” Mr. Trump said. “I mean, I’m looking at him, he’s pouring sweat. I’ve never seen anything like it; I don’t know what the problem is. He’s just pouring down sweat. We have to have somebody that doesn’t sweat. … We need somebody that doesn’t have whatever that is that he’s got.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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