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| South Carolina town hall: Marco Rubio recalls racist taunts against his family – live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 2.54am GMT | |
| 02:54 | |
| Jeb Lund | |
| At the close, Cooper and Rubio had an interesting exchange about football, which Rubio played when he was young. Back then, he admitted, they taught you to tackle with your head, which he admitted (to laughs) that the Democrats would say explains everything you need to know about Rubio. | |
| But, in reply to Cooper’s question about the dangers of football, he mentioned that his daughters do competitive stunt cheerleading, and he drives a car. Both those things have risks. That’s true! | |
| Unfortunately, as anyone who’s done either know, brain damage from both ensues when something goes horribly wrong: CTE-related brain damage in football, even without tackling with anything at all, begins accruing on every play during the natural, normal execution of the game. Football fans know this. | |
| It was a silly answer to give, especially considering that even serious and informed football fans are flummoxed about what to do. Simply throwing up his hands and saying, “We need to try something!” would have worked. | |
| But just note that, on the spot, Rubio defaulted to toeing the party line and the empty rhetoric of billionaire management. | |
| 2.49am GMT | |
| 02:49 | |
| No. No! I’ve never been to a rave! It’s a Republican primary, Anderson! | |
| – Marco Rubio, on his fondness for electronic dance music. | |
| 2.46am GMT | |
| 02:46 | |
| Responding to Ted Cruz’s comment that he’s “behaving like Donald Trump with a smile,” Rubio laughs. | |
| “Donald smiles! I’ve seen him smile!” Rubio says. “Ultimately, it’s not about me, it’s not about Ted, it’s not about Donald, it’s about what this country’s gonna look like when my 15-year-old daughter graduates from college.” | |
| “When the stakes are that high,” Rubio continues, “that’s what I’m going to spend 99% of my time talking about.” | |
| 2.41am GMT | |
| 02:41 | |
| An undecided South Carolina voter asks Marco Rubio about Ronald Reagan’s history of being, compared to the contemporary Republican field, more moderate on immigration, particularly refugee resettlement. | |
| “Policies have to reflect the times in which you live,” Rubio says. “In America, there was a time where nobody locked their doors. Now everybody locks their doors. It’s not because we hate the people outside of our homes - it’s because we love the people inside of our homes.” | |
| “If we accept 10,000, and 9,999 of them were good people, and one of them was an Isis killer, we’d have a big problem,” Rubio elaborates. “If we don’t know who you are, and we don’t know why you’re coming... we’re not going to be able to let you come, because the threat is so real.” | |
| 2.37am GMT | |
| 02:37 | |
| The most important job I will ever have is not to be president of the United States - it will be father to my four children. | |
| – Marco Rubio | |
| 2.35am GMT | |
| 02:35 | |
| On the recent supreme court vacancy, Marco Rubio reaffirms statements he has made criticizing Barack Obama for going forward with plans to nominate a replacement for the late justice Antonin Scalia in an election year. | |
| “I would respect that precedent,” Rubio says, referring to disputed claims that a new justice has not been nominated and confirmed in an election year in eight decades. “Bottom line is, there will be someone filling that vacancy and I think the new president should be filling that vacancy.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 2.38am GMT | |
| 2.29am GMT | |
| 02:29 | |
| Jeb Lund | |
| Rubio was asked about law-enforcement discrimination against African Americans and gave a really empathetic answer. He talked about having a young African-American friend who has been pulled over seven times and never given a ticket; he wondered what that friend is supposed to think or friend is supposed to do. Rubio says that when a member of the American family feels persecuted, we have a problem. | |
| You could tell that he’s thought about this. You felt like you were on the verge of seeing him connect with something – with the idea that there is systemic oppression and harassment of African Americans, even. It seemed like he was about to have a breakthrough. | |
| Instead, he said: “I’m not sure there’s a political solution, but there’s something we can do.” | |
| Then he segued into some talking points about failing public schools and mentioned a single charity group in New York. | |
| I guess that’s what we can do. All of it. | |
| 2.25am GMT | |
| 02:25 | |
| They’re not some sort of special Jedi Council. | |
| – Marco Rubio, on the Fed. | |
| Updated | |
| at 2.29am GMT | |
| 2.24am GMT | |
| 02:24 | |
| Anderson Cooper asks Marco Rubio if he has ever “felt the sting of racism.” | |
| “Some of the neighborhood kids, older kids, were taunting my family,” Rubio says of his childhood in Las Vegas during the Mariel boatlift in 1980. “I never saw it a reflection on America, I saw it as a reflection on those kids and what they were hearing.” | |
| Citing the record-setting racial diversity of the Republican field this year, Rubio says that “that tells you a lot about the Republican party.” | |
| 2.21am GMT | |
| 02:21 | |
| Jeb Lund | |
| Rubio deservedly gets a lot of grief for being an empty suit – which, the vast bulk of the time, he is – but he seemed human and fairly sharp on the issue of Apple’s encryption of the San Bernardino shooter’s phone. It’s a mess, but he made it sound like the thoughtful mess that it is. He acknowledged the danger of creating backdoors to encryption that criminals could use but, pointedly, the small-government conservative did not acknowledge the ability of the government to abuse it. | |
| That said, he also noted that companies outside the US would not be compelled to follow our backdoor encryption models, which is good point! But, after all that, he decided, “We are going to have to figure out a way forward” that would also acknowledge “exigent circumstances”. | |
| This is sort of a big problem for Rubio because it was relatable and thoughtful stuff, but it was not an answer. It was definitely better than the really sharp, definitive and emphatic non-answers he normally gives, but it still wasn’t an answer. | |
| Then, during the time it took me to type that, he delivered an answer to a woman in the audience on college debt full of (clearly memorized) examples and ideas almost verbatim from his last book; even I could have written those statements at least halfway from memory having read it. | |
| As he talked, he started speaking faster and faster and rhythmically rocking left and right on the balls of his feet. Left and right, left and right, left and right. So consider the human moment ended. | |
| 2.19am GMT | 2.19am GMT |
| 02:19 | 02:19 |
| We should not lower standards for anyone, because this is not a game... It’s not about the gender, it’s about the ability to do the job. | |
| – Marco Rubio, on women in combat positions. | – Marco Rubio, on women in combat positions. |
| Updated | |
| at 2.21am GMT | |
| 2.17am GMT | 2.17am GMT |
| 02:17 | 02:17 |
| Megan Carpentier | Megan Carpentier |
| So, what “convicted cop killer” living in Cuba was Rubio talking about when he bashed Obama’s plan to visit? | |
| Assata Shakur (and, if you recognize only the last name, yes, she was rapper Tupac Shakur’s step-aunt and godmother). | |
| Cuba considers her conviction political and has consistently refused to extradite her; Shakur was a member of the Black Liberation Army who was driving a vehicle with two other members when pulled over by New Jersey State troopers in 1973. Shakur and one trooper were shot and survived; Trooper Werner Foerster and one of her passengers died of gunshot wounds. Shakur was convicted after a trial in 1977 that her lawyers have argued was prejudiced (and before and during which her lawyers believe that law enforcement interfered with her defense), but she escaped and fled to Cuba in 1979. | |
| She remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List today. | She remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List today. |
| Read more on Shakur here: | |
| Related: Assata Shakur: from civil rights activist to FBI's most-wanted | Related: Assata Shakur: from civil rights activist to FBI's most-wanted |
| Updated | |
| at 2.23am GMT | |
| 2.14am GMT | 2.14am GMT |
| 02:14 | 02:14 |
| “I know I haven’t lived as long as some of the people running for president,” Rubio says, to a retired Army general, “but none of the people running for president has as much experience in national security matters as I do.” | “I know I haven’t lived as long as some of the people running for president,” Rubio says, to a retired Army general, “but none of the people running for president has as much experience in national security matters as I do.” |
| Citing his service in the US senate on the intelligence committee, Rubio describes his prescience in naming Isis as a major threat to the security of the United States, as well as his vote against the use of force in Syria. | Citing his service in the US senate on the intelligence committee, Rubio describes his prescience in naming Isis as a major threat to the security of the United States, as well as his vote against the use of force in Syria. |
| “It’s the hardest vote you have to make in Congress,” says Rubio. “No one running as a Republican has shown better judgment or has more experience on national security than I do.” | “It’s the hardest vote you have to make in Congress,” says Rubio. “No one running as a Republican has shown better judgment or has more experience on national security than I do.” |