Another Cruz and Rubio flame war benefits Bush
The best part of the clash between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz over immigration at the ninth Republican presidential debate was the sound of Jeb Bush belly laughing in the background.
Rubio and Cruz have now sparred over immigration at nearly every one of the last few debates. And on Saturday night in Greenville, S.C., they once again mixed it up, exchanging largely the same accusations back and forth.
But Rubio threw in a personal jab that angered Cruz and clearly amused Bush.
Cruz had just told the debate audience that Rubio “went on Univision, in Spanish, and said he would not rescind President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty.”
Rubio laughed and said, “I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision, because he doesn’t speak Spanish.”
Bush, who is a fluent Spanish speaker, cracked up off camera. Cruz was visibly upset by the comment and nearly jumped over his lectern to respond, in Spanish.
“Si quiere, dícelo ahora mismo, dícelo ahora en español si quieres,” Cruz said. Roughly translated, he said, “If you want, say it now, say it now in Spanish, if you want.” There was some debate over what exactly he had said, and Spanish speakers said Cruz had used the wrong verb — “dicelo” rather than “dilo” or “digalo” — as the imperative for “say it.”
Cruz, who, like Rubio, is the son of Cuban immigrants, said in 2012 that he was a “lousy” Spanish speaker and turned down an offer from Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who challenged Cruz in the Senate primary race to do a debate entirely in Spanish. Cruz said he spoke a mix of English and Spanish that he characterized as “Spanglish.”
Nevertheless, Rubio, as he has in past debates, then used strikingly strong language to denounce Cruz, calling him a liar.
“This is a disturbing pattern now. For a number of weeks now, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies,” Rubio said.
Rubio accused Cruz of lying when some of his supporters told Iowa voters earlier this month that Ben Carson was dropping out of the presidential race. He said Cruz “lies about marriage,” in an apparent reference to Cruz’s comment to New York donors that reversing the legalization of same-sex marriage would not be a top priority for him.
Cruz has sought to portray himself as uniformly opposed to immigration reform from the day he entered the Senate. That’s hard to do, given that he said in 2013 that he was hoping for immigration reform to pass, and explicitly denied that he was trying to kill the bill, as he now claims to have been doing.
Rubio does have a harder lift on the issue with many conservatives, since he spearheaded the reform bill’s passage through the Senate, and then ran away from the bill when it became clear how much many Republican voters hated it.
Nevertheless, Bush’s chuckling wasn’t just a sign that he found Rubio’s comment funny. It also benefits him for Rubio and Cruz to go after each other, especially when Bush is the only Republican candidate in the race who has consistently confronted frontrunner Donald Trump.
Bush had his strongest debate performance so far on Saturday night, forcefully going back and forth with Trump several times.
After Cruz and Rubio’s bitter argument, Bush chimed in.
“The reason why I should be president is: listening to two senators talk about arcane amendments to bills that didn’t pass,” Bush said.
It’s still hard for many to see Bush as the Republican nominee. But as the GOP searches for an alternative to Trump, the nights where Bush took on Trump as Cruz and Rubio bickered with each other can now help Bush’s cause.
“I believe Jeb Bush has emerged as the alternative to Donald Trump,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on CBS News after the debate.
(Cover tile photo: John Bazemore/AP)
