New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) continued his relentless attack on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at Saturday’s Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire by critiquing Rubio’s role in the “Gang of 8” immigration reform bill.
When asked to defend his role in 2013 bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rubio said the bill failed because Americans didn’t believe in the federal government’s ability to enforce it.
“It has failed because the American people have zero trust that the federal government will enforce our laws,” Rubio said. “That’s why since then I have said, repeatedly, if you are serious about immigration reform, then the key that unlocks the door to being able to do that is not just to pass a law that says it is going to enforce the law, but to actually do it.”
Rubio has tried to distance himself from the bill since launching his presidential campaign. He said the bill, which passed in the U.S. Senate, has “no support.”
Christie wouldn’t let Rubio get away with passing off blame on the unsuccessful legislation.
“This is the difference between being a governor who actually has to be responsible for problems and not answering a question. The question was, did he fight for his legislation. It’s abundantly clear that he didn’t,” Christie said.
Christie then reiterated he didn’t back down for harsh governing challenges, including his fight with New Jersey teachers unions.
“When the teachers unions attacked me with $20 million of ads because I wanted to reform teacher tenure, I fought them and fought them and fought them and I won,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is, a leader must fight for what they believe in. Not handicap it, and say, maybe because I can’t win this one, I’ll run. That’s not what leadership is. That’s what Congress is,” Christie added.
Christie’s first attack on the freshman senator was on Rubio’s “memorized 25-second speech.”
