Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) presidential campaign brushed off repeated, yet subtle, accusations of being a moderate from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) after Tuesday’s Republican debate in Milwaukee.
Rubio’s campaign manager Terry Sullivan told Bloomberg Politics that calling the freshman senator a moderate was “ridiculous.”
“It’s crazy,” Sullivan told Bloomberg. “Absolutely, positively most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Marco Rubio is the conservative’s conservative.”
Cruz alluded to Rubio’s more moderate policy stances twice during Tuesday’s debate but strategically failed to name his opponent outright, according to Bloomberg. This echoed what Cruz told CNN on Thursday when he called Rubio “formidable” in the “moderate lane” of the Republican party, according to a transcript from the Daily Caller.
Cruz’s campaign spokesman Rick Tyler told Bloomberg Politics after the debate that the policy differences between the two candidates were clear.
“So then it is, what is the substance of those two policies, and who’s been consistent on those policies? And I think we win that,” Tyler said.
