Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Friday that GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has been historically vulgar in the way Mr. Trump has carried out his campaign.
“Look, I go into these debates, and I hope every question is a policy question. It hasn’t been that way because Donald Trump has been perhaps the most vulgar — no, I don’t think perhaps — the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency in terms of how he’s carried out his candidacy, and it’s cut into a lot of these debates and some of the things that are asked about,” Mr. Rubio said on CNN’s “New Day.”
Mr. Rubio said he’s not complaining and “it is what it is” on the questions that get asked, but many were tied to “he said or she said” and he would love to have a policy debate.
In one of the more memorable moments of Thursday’s GOP debate, Mr. Trump pushed back against Mr. Rubio’s charge that he has small hands with an answer many saw as full of innuendo.
“He hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands?” Mr. Trump said at the debate.
“And he referred to my hands, if they’re small, something else must be small,” Mr. Trump said. “I guarantee you, there’s no problem. I guarantee.”
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Mr. Trump downplayed the exchange after the debate.
“No, I only made a joke about my hands. I have very powerful hands,” Mr. Trump told CNN afterward. “Look at these hands — aren’t they beautiful? I have very powerful hands and large hands, relatively large hands, and a politician [said] I didn’t have large hands. That’s the first time anyone’s ever said that one.”
“So no — I think it was a good moment,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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