Reminiscent of a David vs. Goliath battle, Marco Rubio, the first-term Senator of Cuban descent, went after Republican front-runner Donald Trump as never before, with due support from fellow-Senator Ted Cruz in perhaps the most raucous presidential debate of the season on Thursday night.
The debate in Houston, coming days before the crucial ‘Super Tuesday’ primaries in as many as 12 States at one go, saw a transformed Rubio batter the billionaire businessman on a host of issues ranging from his hiring of illegal immigrants in the past to his “lying” to students of the now-defunct Trump University which is now a subject of litigation.
The usually aggressive Trump appeared to go on the defensive at times as the two Senators tactically joined forces and unleashed a barrage of attacks from either side over his failure to commit himself to release his tax returns and for not providing specifics on major issues, be it health care or foreign policy. Trump, however, sought to trash both Senators in his customary style now and then, dismissing both as “all-talk-no-action” politicians. At one point, he dubbed Rubio “a choke artist” and branded Cruz “a liar”, who did not have a single friend in the Senate.
Pundits, however, were not sure how the debate would impact Trump’s fortunes in the ‘Super Tuesday’ contests in which polls have him in the lead in most of the 12 States, save for Texas, where it’s advantage Cruz.
Rubio, who has lately emerged as the Republican establishment’s favourite but is still to win a primary, attacked Trump sharply on his pet issue of illegal immigration by painting him as a hypocrite who had actually hired 200 undocumented Polish workers to demolish a building to make way for the Trump Tower in New York City. “You’re the only person on this stage that has ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally,” Rubio said, with Trump interjecting: “I’m the only one on the stage that’s hired people. You haven’t hired anyone.” Rubio also attacked him for hiring several hundred foreign workers for a project in Florida’s Palm Beach, but Trump claimed it was because not many Americans were coming forward for the part-time, seasonal jobs.
Rubio also had a dig at Trump’s claims as a self-made real-estate tycoon, suggesting that it was courtesy a large family inheritance to begin with.