Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) hit GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as a "con artist" Friday on ABC's Good Morning America, coming off a debate performance where he relentlessly attacked Trump's record.
After Rubio ripped Trump on various issues like not being specific on health care, hiring illegal workers and even repeating himself on the stage, Trump stormed back by calling him a "choker." Host George Stephanopoulos noted the current Drudge Report banner asks whether Rubio could win any primary states, given Trump's consistent lead in the polls.
"You're ahead in none," Stephanopoulos said.
"Yeah, I acknowledge I'm an underdog, and I have been my entire life," Rubio said. "My whole life I've had to fight, and I'm going to fight now, because there is no way that [I'm going to allow] the party of Reagan and the conservative movement to be taken over by a con artist. He says I'm a choker. He's a con artist. He consistently is telling people he's going to be out there fighting on their behalf, but he has spent 40 years sticking it to people he now claims to be fighting for."
Stephanopoulos asked whether Trump could be stopped if he wins many states on Super Tuesday, but Rubio responded he expects to pick up delegates with the states awarding them on a proportional basis, and he says he would win his home state of Florida on March 15.
Stephanopoulos mentioned a poll showing Trump up double digits there, but Rubio bristled, saying he'd seen numbers showing a very different race.
"I know Florida well," Rubio said. "I've won there. I'm from there. We are going to win Florida. Florida is not going to vote for a con artist, and it's not going to vote for someone who in Palm Beach right now is not hiring willing Americans. Instead, he's importing work force from abroad, but he's out there as some sort of immigration crusader. It's a fraud. We're going to expose it."
Rubio repeated the ‘con artist" charge in appearances on The Today Show and CBS This Morning.