Marco Rubio spoke in poignant personal terms about race, slammed President Barack Obama’s plan to visit Cuba and defended calling Ted Cruz a liar at CNN’s GOP town hall in South Carolina on Wednesday night.
The Florida senator used his experience of growing up as a Cuban-American to discuss the issue of racism in American society. Rubio said that as a young child, he was “disturbed” when his family was taunted by kids in the neighborhood.
“Some of the neighborhood kids, older kids, one day were taunting my family, saying, ‘Why don’t you go back on your boat? Why don’t you go back to your country?'” he told moderator Anderson Cooper.
Nevertheless, his parents “never raised us to feel that we were victims,” Rubio said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t deny that there are people in this country that have had a different experience, and we need to recognize that.”
Rubio also boasted about the diversity of his campaign, referring to the endorsements he’s received from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott.
“I got the endorsement of a governor of Indian descent, who endorsed a presidential candidate of Cuban descent, and tomorrow we’ll be campaigning alongside an African-American Republican senator,” he said.
Rubio took the stage after word emerged that Obama plans to visit Cuba next month.
The Florida senator said that if he were president, he would not go to the island nation — unless it were a “free Cuba.”
The Cuban government is “an anti-American communist dictatorship,” said Rubio, who has been an outspoken critic of Obama’s Cuba policy. “They’re a repressive regime.”
Rubio also doubled down on his recent accusation that Cruz is “lying,” saying there is simply “no other word” for his rival’s behavior.
“It’s about your record, you’ve gotta clear it up,” he said. “These things are disturbing and they need to be addressed.”
Rubio insisted, however, that his escalating feud with Cruz was “not the core of my campaign.”
Cruz, a Texas senator, will appear separately at the town hall later in the evening, but he has previously rejected the accusation of lies leveled by Rubio and other opponents.
Rubio, for his part, laughed off Cruz’s comment earlier in the day that Rubio was acting like “Donald Trump with a smile.”
“I don’t know, this back and forth is silly,” Rubio said at the town hall. “Ultimately it’s not about me, it’s not about Ted, it’s not about Donald. It’s about what is this country going to look like when my 15-year-old graduates from college.”
Facing a contest in a state with a large military and veterans populations, Rubio, who sits on the Senate intelligence community, also claimed that “no one running as a Republican has shown better judgment or has more experience on national security or on foreign policy than I do.”
Asked to address former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s criticism that Rubio lacks foreign policy experience — and concerns about electing a first-term senator to the White House — Rubio called Obama a “failed president.”
“He is worse in his seventh year than he was in his first,” he said. “His ideas don’t work.”
Before Rubio, Ben Carson took the stage and said that if he were president in his last year of office, he would nominate someone to replace late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
“I probably would take the opportunity to nominate someone. Doesn’t necessarily mean that person will be acted on or confirmed,” Carson said, ahead of the Palmetto State’s Republican primary on Saturday. “Why not do it?”
The retired neurosurgeon also weighed in on the ongoing discussions over whether the cell phone of one of the attackers in the San Bernardino mass shooting should be unlocked.
“Apple and probably a lot of other people don’t probably necessarily trust the government these days,” Carson said, pushing for a “public-private partnership.”
It’s a “matter of people learning to trust each other,” Carson added, saying Apple should “sit down with trustworthy members of the government.”
Carson has struggled to regain his footing after briefly surging in the polls months ago. The political newcomer has particularly stumbled over national security and foreign policy questions — critical issues in a state that has a large military and veterans community.
One questioner put Carson on the spot by asking what qualifications he has to be the country’s commander in chief, particularly in light of the growing threat of ISIS and instability in the Middle East.
Carson responded that he was prepared for the job, repeating a line he frequently uses on the trail: that he has had to take more 2 a.m. phone calls than anybody else in the race.
“It’s the political class that has tried to convince everybody that they’re the only ones who can solve our problems,” he said. “What we really need are people who know how to solve problems — not people who know how to talk.”
Carson also reflected on the experience of running for president for the first time, saying he has seen the good and the dark side of politics.
“It hasn’t been that great dealing with the press,” he said.
The prime-time event offers each of the candidates an opportunity to make a personal case to the voters of this Southern state just three days before voting begins. Unlike in the debates, the White House contenders are each on stage separately and field questions from audience members as well as Cooper.
A second CNN town hall Thursday night will feature the remaining three GOP candidates: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and John Kasich.
Though Cruz and Rubio won’t be sharing the stage Wednesday, there’s plenty of opportunity for jousting. Earlier in the day, Rubio slammed Cruz for “disturbing” behavior on the campaign trail, saying that his Senate colleague has mischaracterized his record.
Cruz hit back during a press conference where he derided Rubio as “behaving like Donald Trump with a smile.”
The two men have clashed bitterly over immigration at the last South Carolina Republican debate on Saturday. Cruz accused Rubio of joining with Senate Democrats on an “amnesty plan,” spurring Rubio to denounce the Texas senator for spreading “lies.”
Both Cruz and Rubio are hoping for a strong showing in the state, where Trump continues to hold a sizable lead. A new CNN/ORC poll out Tuesday showed Trump on top at 38%, followed by Cruz at 22%, Rubio at 14% and Bush at 10%.