PURCELLVILLE, Va. — When Marco Rubio recalled his debate showdown with his rival for the Republican presidential nomination Donald Trump, the rush of applause and cheering that filled a college gymnasium here Sunday afternoon sounded like a huge sigh of relief.
For the several thousand listening to the U.S. senator from Florida, the emergence of someone — anyone — to throw punches back at Trump was cathartic.
In fact, the crowd didn’t even let Rubio finish his sentence when he brought up the debate in Houston. He began: “Thursday night, I decided that it was time to unmask the true nature of a man—”
The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd here on the campus of Patrick Henry College, an hour west of Washington, D.C.
As Mike Farris, the chancellor of Patrick Henry College, and one of the pioneers of the Christian homeschooling movement in the United States, put it: “Somebody has to tell the truth about Donald Trump.”
To evangelicals like Farris, the unleashing of Rubio over the last three days has made him the “premier challenger” to Trump. That’s despite the fact that a former student remarked to me that he had thought Farris would endorse Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose background in competitive debating makes him a model of the kind of student Patrick Henry tries to produce.
Yet Farris said that at Patrick Henry, “Most of the student body, for sure, and many of the faculty and others are definitely leaning strongly toward Rubio.”
“Trump is a persona non grata around here, mostly,” Farris said. “There’s a good amount of Cruz support as well. … But I think Rubio’s approach — the hope for the next generation — is more appealing to most of the people here.”
Rubio held four rallies Sunday in different parts of Virginia, one of four states where his campaign holds out hope of stealing a win from Trump on Super Tuesday. There are 12 states holding primaries or caucuses Tuesday. The Rubio campaign thinks it can perform best in Virginia, Arkansas, Minnesota and Oklahoma.
The Virginia barnstorming tour continued at a furious pace for Rubio, who also held four events in three states on Saturday and has five events in four states scheduled for Monday. The almost frantic schedule underscores the reality for Rubio — that although he has momentum, he is still far behind Trump in most polls, and desperately needs a win somewhere Tuesday.
Rubio has succeeded, however, in diverting some of the political conversation away from Trump.
On Sunday morning, Trump found himself on the defensive on each of the four news talk shows to which he gave interviews. On “Fox News Sunday,” for example, his interview with Chris Wallace hit five topics: Rubio’s charge that Trump is “a con man”; the admission by Trump that illegal immigrants from Poland worked on the construction of Trump Tower; criticisms about the legitimacy of a now-defunct business called Trump University; the question of whether Trump will release his tax returns; and Trump’s comments that he would like to make it easier to sue news organizations for libel.
Rubio and Trump spar over immigration
Marco Rubio attacks Trump's record on immigration by pointing out flaws in his hiring records for his businesses.
Trump also doubled down on a statement he made after Thursday’s debate, in response to questions about why he has hired hundreds of foreign-born immigrants for jobs at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, even though job applications were received from hundreds of American citizens. As he has before, Trump insisted that many American citizens would not want such jobs, an argument that undercuts his harsh anti-immigration rhetoric.
“A lot of the people that we have made offers to … when they hear it’s a part-time job, or a it’s a four-month or five-month job — and I understand this — they’re not interested. They’re American people. They’re not interested,” Trump said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Continuing his newsmaking Sunday, Trump also refused, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” to repudiate former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, and the Klan itself.
“Would you just say unequivocally you condemn them and you don’t want their support?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Trump.
“Well, I have to look at the group. I mean, I don’t know what group you’re talking about,” Trump said. “Certainly, I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong.”
By Jon Ward.
Culled from Yahoo News.
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