Had Marco Rubio performed a week ago in the New Hampshire debate as he did Saturday night in South Carolina, the Florida senator might have vanquished his non-Trump, non-Cruz rivals for good. Seven days after having the worst debate performances of his presidential campaign, and even less time after coming in a disappointing fifth place in the New Hampshire primary, Rubio seemed to bounce back with strong, informed answers on national security and taxes. But with his top establishment rivals, John Kasich and Jeb Bush, delivering solid turns themselves, has Rubio’s opportunity to break out of the pack passed?
It helped that Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor who elicited Rubio’s debate malfunction on February 6, has since dropped out of the race and was not onstage in South Carolina. But Rubio also looked and sounded looser than he had a week earlier. He slowed down his typically rapid delivery. Most importantly, he didn’t repeat a 25-second speech.
Rubio had quite a few stand-out moments Saturday. The first questions moderator John Dickerson asked of all the candidates concerned the recent news that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died. Among the candidates, Rubio was the first to praise Scalia, calling him “one of the great justices in the history of this republic.” He hailed two Scalia dissents in particular, including the recent dissent on last year’s case that declared same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional.
A later question from Dickerson, about what three questions the candidates would ask their national security advisers on their first day as president, provided Rubio the chance to break from his perceived reliance on pre-planned speeches. Rubio demonstrated not only his agility–to list off the top of his head three key national security questions–but also the breadth of his knowledge on foreign policy.
Concise, informed, and directly responsive to the moderator’s question. It may have been Rubio’s best moment of the debate.
Rubio also defended the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, against Donald Trump’s tirade, directed at Jeb Bush, that on September 11, 2001, “the World Trade Center came down under your brother’s reign.” Trump also criticized the Iraq War by saying the Bush administration “knew” Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction but led the U.S. into war against him anyway.
Rubio chimed in. “I just want to say, at least on behalf of me and my family, I thank God all the time that it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore,” Rubio said. “I think you can look back in hindsight and say a couple things, but he kept us safe. And not only did he keep us safe, but no matter what you want to say about weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was in violation of U.N. resolutions, in open violation, and the world wouldn’t do anything about it. And George W. Bush enforced what the international community refused to do. And again, he kept us safe, and I am forever grateful to what he did for this country.”
The foundation of Trump’s coalition may be Americans who often vote Republican but aren’t loyal to George W. Bush. But plenty of Republicans who agree with Rubio’s claim about Bush keeping the country safe also vote in primaries, and it was a good chance for Rubio to make a play for those “regular Republicans.”
Another strong Rubio response came after a question from the Wall Street Journal‘s Kim Strassel. The editorial page at the Journal has been highly critical of Rubio’s tax plan, which includes a top marginal income-tax rate of 35 percent and a $2,500 increase in the child tax credit. “Normally it’s liberals who like to use the tax code to influence social policy. Why should conservatives want a tax plan that adopts the other side’s approach?” Strassel asked.
“Well, because I’m not influencing social policy,” Rubio said. “This is their money. This is the money of parents. You don’t earn the tax credit unless you’re working. That’s your money. It doesn’t belong to the government. Here’s what I don’t understand. If a business takes their money and they invest it in a piece of equipment, they get to write it off their taxes. But if a parent takes money that they have earned through work and invest it in their children, they don’t? This makes no sense.” Watch the video below:
“I’m going to have a tax plan that is pro-family because the family is the most important institution in society. You cannot have a strong country without strong families,” Rubio said.
It’s hard to say how Rubio’s stellar performance will help him in South Carolina, which holds its primary this coming Saturday. Jeb Bush, coming off months of bad to middling debates, had a good night that involved tussling with Trump and holding his own while doing so. John Kasich, meanwhile, continued to try the high road by denouncing the negativity on display and projecting his own brand of positive moderation.
Neither blew himself up, and Bush may even get a boost for his ability to draw out the worst in Trump on the stage. Rubio’s terrific evening in South Carolina may not change the dynamics that were set in place after his bad night a week earlier: the GOP presidential field is stuck in gridlock. And Trump is still ahead of traffic.
