Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) argued Monday that Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) handling of a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill shows he probably couldn’t handle the pressure of being president.
“Just because he is Hispanic does not mean he automatically earns the votes of Hispanic voters across the country,” Wasserman Schultz said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jose Diaz Balart. “Jose, the last time I checked there’s a little pressure on the president of the United States. If Marco Rubio couldn’t even hack the pressure from the right wing tea party extremists after he embraced and authored and helped push through comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate, a little pressure on him and he folded like a house of cards, how will he hack the presidency?”
Wasserman Schultz’s comments came the same day Rubio is expected to announce his candidacy for president in Miami at 6 p.m.
The DNC chairwoman’s criticism refers to Rubio’s involvement in the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill.
Rubio, who rode tea party support to winning his Senate seat by defeating former Gov. Charlie Crist in the Republican primary, initially championed the comprehensive immigration reform package, sparking ire of anti-immigration hardliners. Rubio eventually argued that Congress should scale back its effort and instead try taking incremental steps toward fixing the nation’s immigration system.
