Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) pounded Hillary Clinton for her extreme pro-choice position on abortion during Saturday's Republican debate, and he also hit the mainstream press for not aggressively questioning her on the issue.
Guest moderator Mary Katharine Ham prompted the response when she asked Rubio about the key social issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, both of which Rubio opposes, and how young people feel about those issues.
Ham remarked there was a laziness to the conventional wisdom that such issues hurt Republicans with millennials.
"On the two most prominent social issues, polling with millennials actually moves in different directions," Ham said. "On one hand, it's clear young people across the political spectrum increasingly favor same-sex marriage. However, young voters have not moved to the left on abortion. In fact, large numbers of them favor at least some modest restrictions that conservatives have supported. How do you speak to millennials on both these issues while Democrats will inevitably charge intolerance and extremism?"
Rubio replied briefly that believing in traditional marriage did not make him a "hater," while saying he respected those who favored gay marriage. On the issue of life, however, he became far more forceful, saying that, for him, the right to life for an unborn child was the most important to him.
"Here's what I found outrageous," Rubio said. "There have been five Democratic debates. The media has not asked them a single question on abortion, and on abortion, the Democrats are extremists. Why doesn't the media ask Hillary Clinton why she believes that all abortions should be legal, even on the due date of that unborn child?
"Why don't they ask Hillary Clinton why she believes that partial-birth abortion, which is a gruesome procedure that has been outlawed in this country, she thinks that's a fundamental right. They are the extremists when it comes to the issue of abortion, and I can't wait to expose them in a general election."