Jeb Bush says nobody should pity Marco Rubio over the hammering attacks his Super PAC Right to Rise has made on the Florida senator.
"You don't have to feel sorry for Marco Rubio," the former Florida governor said on WABC Radio's
"Election Central with Rita Cosby."
"People have a great ability to take all of this advertising and kind of filter it out the way they want. The ads I've seen that the Super PAC has done related to Senator Rubio are fair …
"[Rubio's] got three or four attacks ads up attacking other candidates right now. He's a big boy. He can handle it."
One anti-Rubio TV ad titled "Vane" attacks him for changing his position on immigration reform and supporting "amnesty" and begins with an animation of Rubio shown as weathervane atop a barn who shifts with the "political winds."
"Marco Rubio: He ran for Senate saying he opposed amnesty," the ad says. "Then he flipped and worked with liberal Chuck Schumer to co-author the path to citizenship. He threatened to vote against it and then voted for it."
Another ad calls Rubio a flip-flopper on issues to the tune of the Nancy Sinatra hit "These Boots are Made for Walking." The word "flipping" is substituted while an actor in cowboy boots portraying Rubio making smooth dance moves.
Bush — who trails Rubio, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz by double digits in the race for the GOP presidential nomination — also defended his new campaign that depicts Trump losing to Hillary Clinton in the general election.
"You can't disparage women, POWs, disabled people, Hispanics and expect to win in a diverse country like the United States … I can beat him." Bush told Rita Cosby.
A new CNN/WMUR poll ranks Bush tied with Rubio for third place with 10 percent of the vote in upcoming New Hampshire caucuses, a welcome statistic Bush believes is the beginning of what will be his dramatic rise in the polls.
"[New Hampshire] could be a game-changing event for sure ... There seems to be movement towards our cause … We have to win because our country's future is at stake," Bush said.
"We can go the distance. My expectation is, 'I'm in it for the long haul,' and I'm going to win."
Other poll numbers, however, don't look good for Bush.
The latest
CNN/ORC poll released Thursday shows Donald Trump holds an 11-point lead over Ted Cruz, his nearest competitor, in the Iowa Republican presidential caucus.
The results of the poll, conducted Jan. 15-20:
- Donald Trump, 37 percent
- Ted Cruz, 26 percent
- Marco Rubio, 14 percent
- Ben Carson, 6 percent
- Jeb Bush, 3 percent
And a new
Zogby Analytics poll of likely GOP caucus and primary voters shows Trump is the clear front-runner, leading Sen. Ted Cruz by 32 points.
According to the poll, conducted Jan. 19-20:
- Donald Trump, 45 percent
- Ted Cruz, 13 percent
- Marco Rubio, 8 percent
- Jeb Bush, 6 percent
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