Rubio’s Challenger Tries to Tie Him to Trump

Rep. Patrick Murphy clearly wishes he were running against Donald Trump for a seat representing Florida in the Senate. At a debate Monday, he mentioned his actual opponent far less than the GOP presidential nominee.

Murphy criticized Sen. Marco Rubio for missed Senate votes during his ill-fated run for the Republican nomination for president.

“If Congressman Murphy trusts Hillary Clinton 100 percent, he’s in rare company. Because not even Tim Kaine is willing to say that, and he’s her running mate.”

“And if that’s not bad enough, he just doubled down on his endorsement of Donald Trump, showing he’ll continue to put his own political agenda in front of what’s best for Florida,” Murphy said during his opening statement, previewing the theme he would hit again and again during the hour-long debate at the University of Central Florida.

It is an approach that Democratic congressional candidates are taking to varying degrees across the country. Florida could be key in determining whether Republicans maintain their control of the upper chamber after November. When Rubio announced during the presidential primaries that he would leave office whether he won the GOP nomination or not, the Sunshine State looked like a prime opportunity for the Democrats.

But after changing his mind, Rubio quickly took control of the race and has enjoyed a healthy lead in most recent surveys. The current RealClearPolitics polling margin stands at 4.7 points.

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Murphy answered almost every question with a knock against Trump. Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for classified emails as secretary of state? Trump is worse. Plans to reform immigration? Trump, Trump, Trump. Should Americans have confidence in the accuracy of the election results?

“We are going to accept the results of this election. But unfortunately, you’re still standing by Donald Trump,” Murphy said.

Murphy defended Clinton, noting that she had apologized for her handling of email. But then he pivoted into another attack on Trump. Rubio did not defend Trump but instead cast himself as a voice of independence. He said one of the reasons he changed his mind and decided to run again is that he realized it would be important for Florida to have a strong senator to stand up to whichever of the deeply flawed presidential candidates wins Nov. 8.

“If Congressman Murphy trusts Hillary Clinton 100 percent, he’s in rare company,” he said. “Because not even Tim Kaine is willing to say that, and he’s her running mate. The second thing I would tell you is, I don’t trust either one of them. The job of a U.S. senator is not to blindly trust the president because they happen to be from your own party.”

Rubio contrasted his willingness to criticize Trump with Murphy’s embrace of Clinton.

“Congressman Murphy hasn’t once broken with the nominee of his party,” he said.

Rubio said he was the only candidate on the debate stage who had actually run against Trump and voted against him. And he added that Murphy was the only candidate whose family had made millions of dollars in partnership with Trump — a dig at the fact that Murphy’s family owns a construction firm that did work on the Trump Royale and Trump Hollywood.

Rubio also poked Murphy over allegations that he fudged his educational background and work history, and his meager legislative record during two terms in Congress.

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“He does not have a single, singular achievement in his entire four years in the United States Congress,” he said.

Murphy claimed credit for blocking cuts to Medicare, pursuing flood insurance reform, and obtaining $2 billion for cleanup of the Everglades. Rubio retorted that the Everglades cleanup funding never would have passed had he not persuaded Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to change his mind on the issue.

“In essence, I got more done for the Everglades in one day than you did in four years,” he said.

Rubio also undercut a line Murphy tried to deploy — that he would not commit to serving a full term in the Senate if elected. Rubio flatly said that he would.