I’ve been waiting for Donald Trump to release some hard-hitting attack ads for a long time now. So far, I’ve mostly been disappointed. That is, until today. The ad below finally unleashes on Marco Rubio over his Republican Party credit card scandal down in Florida. I wish I could find a transcript of this ad, because it’s damn good. I don’t feel like sitting down and creating one.
Ah, to hell with it. I’ll go ahead and do it myself.
NARRATOR:
Corrupt Marco Rubio has spent years defrauding the people of Florida. As a legislator, he flipped on a key vote after making a quick $200,000 from selling his house to the mother of the bill’s lobbyist.
He used the Republican Party’s credit card to pave his driveway and live it up in Las Vegas. When he got caught, he said he had used the wrong credit card. But he had used the same Republican Party card for 6 flights between Miami and Tallahassee, then, billed the state for the same airline tickets and pocketed the cash, until…once again…he got caught.
On top of it all, Rubio’s been a total no-show in the United States Senate, with the worst voting record of all.
Marco Rubio: another corrupt, all-talk, no-action politician.
TRUMP: “I’m Donald Trump, and I approved this message.”
Here’s the video itself…
The ad looks pretty effective to me, but the voters of Florida will be the final judge. Before I leave you guys, here’s some new polling data from Monmouth University…
Marco Rubio has only claimed two victories so far, making the Sunshine State his make-or-break moment. The Monmouth University Poll finds the home state U.S. Senator currently trails Donald Trump by 8 points in Florida’s Republican primary.
Trump has support from 38% of likely primary voters compared to 30% who back Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz earns 17% support and John Kasich has 10%. Rubio actually leads Trump by 48% to 23% among the nearly 1-in-5 voters who have already cast their ballots in this “early vote” state. Trump has a 42% to 26% lead among those who have yet to vote.
Rubio leads Trump 41% to 30% in the southern part of the state. Trump has a significant 44% to 22% advantage in Florida’s central region. The race is closer in the northern tier of the state, with Trump at 36% and Rubio at 32%. Nearly one-fifth of the likely electorate is non-white, mostly Cuban or other Hispanic. This group appears to prefer Rubio over Trump, but the sample size is too small to report exact percentages.
“Rubio is within shooting distance in his home state with a week to go in this volatile nomination contest,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It is telling, though, that Rubio is not even the clear victor in a direct face off with Trump. There goes the argument that Rubio would triumph if only it were a two person race.”
With all the discussion about hands in this election, Monmouth decided to test how Rubio and Cruz would do mano a mano against Trump. Trump (47%) and Rubio (45%) are basically tied in this hypothetical two person race. Trump (48%) would potentially have a decided edge over Cruz (40%) in a head to head vote in Florida.
