Marco Rubio Mocked For Still Whining About Chris Christie’s 2016 Debate Beatdown
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is apparently still smarting over the verbal beating he took from Chris Christie during a 2016 debate when the two were part of a crowded field seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
As Christie unveiled his 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday, footage of him dismantling Rubio during a debate in New Hampshire before that state’s primary blew up on Twitter.
The former New Jersey governor mocked Rubio for a robotic performance relying on canned pre-written lines and memorized bits of stump speeches.
“There it is,” Christie said as Rubio repeated one of those very lines. “The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody.”
That was more than seven years ago ― but Rubio was clearly not happy with the reminder.
The senator tweeted:
Rubio is correct in that Christie dropped out right after New Hampshire while he remained in the race for another month.
But Rubio had been gaining momentum in New Hampshire prior to the debate and had reportedly been hoping to finish at least second in the state.
He finished fifth, and he seemed to acknowledge at the time that Christie’s jabs ― and his own robotic replies ― played a role.
“I did not do well on Saturday night,” Rubio said after the primary defeat, referring to the debate in which Christie went on the offensive with moments such as this:
lol CNN just reminded everyone of when Chris Christie murdered Marco Rubio during a debate pic.twitter.com/OPzpGnLoxK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 1, 2023
Twitter users mocked Rubio for even bringing it up:
I don’t think his objective was to get twitterverse to google a debate many may have forgotten about but here we are… https://t.co/usM8LM9Bfh
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) June 6, 2023
This is the most delicious tweet of 2023.
What joy it gives me to know that @marcorubio can’t get over @ChrisChristie’s unmasking and disembowelment of him as the weak, spineless, postalita fraud that Marco Rubio always has been and always will be.
Cry harder, LM👦🏻👇🏼 https://t.co/dQueknxMX1— Fernand R. Amandi (@AmandiOnAir) June 7, 2023
And yet the biggest shock isn’t that you lost its how you absolutely love Trump now. https://t.co/xk5hCLEGu8
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) June 7, 2023
Girl it’s 2023 https://t.co/XetIJkK8uX
— Meena Harris (@meena) June 7, 2023
Tell me you’re not over it without telling me you’re not over it… https://t.co/GWsRsswLBA
— Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds) June 7, 2023
The way to signal you’re not still owned seven years later is definitely to tweet through it https://t.co/U9RwEA95mb
— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) June 7, 2023
If my claim to fame was 31.98% in the virginia primary 7 years ago I would not bring it up much https://t.co/lv0yYJh0HA
— drew shannon (@drewcshannon) June 7, 2023
In Little Marco’s defense, his campaign ended when he made fun of Trump’s penis size, lost his home state, cried out of concern for the country because of a Trump Presidency and then promptly endorsed Trump https://t.co/69znuUk41b
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) June 6, 2023
Courageous move to blame your staff, Marco! Thank you for this important clarification. https://t.co/TRT8tzDcF3
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) June 7, 2023
Worth mentioning that the morning after the NH debate in which Christie rightly portrayed Rubio as robotic, Rubio did an event in which he recited his stump speech word for word without even a flicker of recognition that he was making Christie's point yet again. https://t.co/blKrGnItOw
— Walter Shapiro (@MrWalterShapiro) June 7, 2023
This is like a 26 year old complaining about their high school bully. It’s been that long. https://t.co/jmlfCjrOI9
— Zack Brown (@ZackBrownDC) June 7, 2023
Please Marco, keep telling us why your 2016 campaign failed, this is top notch content https://t.co/xEZGuhn7VJ
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) June 7, 2023
hall of fame tweet https://t.co/QnSZa1yY9J
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) June 6, 2023