He called him a con artist and said among other things that he had
small hands, a charge thatTrump took to mean as questioning the size of
his manhood.
Rubio says he regrets getting personal with Donald Trump(Reuters)
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio voiced regret on Wednesday about making personal attacks against front-runner Donald Trump, a strategy that has failed to slow the New York billionaire's momentum. Rubio, Trump, Ohio Governor John Kasich and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
of Texas, the four remaining Republican presidential candidates,
participated in a round of Fox News-sponsored town hall events a day
before they meet for another debate on Thursday in Miami.
Rubio,
whose campaign is fighting for survival after a series of disappointing
performances in nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election, has drawn
fire for a line of attack in recent weeks in which he got personal
with Trump.
He called him a con artist and said
among other things that he had small hands, a charge thatTrump took to
mean as questioning the size of his manhood.
Until
Rubio got personal, the U.S. senator from Florida had largely stayed
above the fray and had focused his assault on Trump from a policy
standpoint.
He told Fox News' "The Kelly File" that if he had to do it over again, he would handle the issue differently.
"My
kids were embarrassed by it. My wife didn’t like it. I don’t think it
reflects good. That’s not who I am. That’s not what my campaign is going
to be about or will ever be about again," Rubio said.
"I’d
do it differently – on the personal stuff. I’m not telling you he
didn’t deserve it, but that’s not who I am and that’s not what I want to
be," he added.
Rubio, 44, fared poorly when
Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii voted on Tuesday. He needs to
win his home state of Florida next Tuesday or face calls for him to exit
the race.
He said opinion polls showing him lagging far behind Trump in Florida were not accurate.
"The
fact of the matter is the only poll that counts is the one they’ll take
on Tuesday when they count the votes that these people are going to
cast and we’re going to win in Florida,” he said.
Cruz,
45, looking to emerge as the main Trump alternative should Rubio and
Kasich falter, said he would keep the focus of the campaign on
substantive issues.
"I don't have any views on Donald Trump's anatomy," Cruz said at his Fox News town hall.
BROKERED CONVENTION?
Kasich,
at his Fox News town hall, said he believed he had a path forward if he
wins his home state of Ohio on Tuesday, but that it involved a
convention fight when Republicans gather to officially pick their
nominee in Cleveland in July.
A contested
convention would result if Trump, 69, does not win the required 1,237
delegates, forcing delegates to decide whether to back him at the
convention or find a consensus candidate such as Kasich, 63.
President
Gerald Ford and challenger Ronald Reagan staged a spirited nomination
fight at the 1976 Republican National Convention, but no Republican
convention has gone beyond a single ballot since Thomas Dewey's
third-ballot win in 1948.
Trump, who has come
under withering attack by mainstream Republicans for his statements on
Muslims, illegal immigrants and trade policy, said at his Fox News town
hall he had attracted many new voters to the Republican Party with his
crossover appeal.
He said establishment Republicans would be risking the energy he had brought to the race by trying to prevent him from winning.
"They would be so foolish to throw it away," he told host Sean Hannity.
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