Sen. Marco Rubio is defending his rote repetition of a stump-speech line at the last GOP presidential face-off, saying he not only feels "great" about it, but that it led to a fundraising windfall.
In an interview on
"CBS This Morning" Monday, the Florida lawmaker said his oft-repeated attack on President Barack Obama "is the core of our campaign," adding: "I hope they keep replaying those lines."
"I feel great about it," he said of his performance. "Voters across the country and especially here in New Hampshire got to hear me say repeatedly the truth. That Barack Obama is trying to redefine the role of government in our country and America's role in the world."
Rubio added Obama's White House tenure is "one of the main reasons why I'm running and it's one of the reasons why I feel so good about our debate performance, despite whatever the media people want to say."
"It was the biggest fund-raising night we have had in all of the debates," he added. "So I feel great about it and we are going to continue to say the truth."
Rubio came under withering attack in the Saturday night debate by
Gov. Chris Christie for falling back on the rote repetition.
But the contender, who finished a strong third in the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, said the line hit a nerve with voters.
"We raised more money in the first hour of that debate than any other debate," he said.
"At the end of the day, New Hampshire voters are among the most serious voters in the country, if not the most serious. They look at the issues, the underlying facts and want to know candidates don't know what they are just talking about, but have a real plan and a real strategy moving forward . . . We feel great about the dividends that is going to pay here in 24 hours."
He resisted making a prediction for his Granite State finish, but remains confident.
"It's very competitive here," he said. "I mean, there are people that this is basically their entire campaign is one state."
"I expect to be the nominee" after the "very unusual election cycle," he added. "We are going to unify this party and grow the conservative movement and I am the candidate that can beat Hillary Clinton."
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