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Republican Race Heating Up; Chris Christie Endorses Donald Trump. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 26, 2016 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:02]

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That would be a stunning shift for this party and, quite frankly, would make us indistinguishable from the Democrats.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Senator, your campaign has guaranteed that they will Florida.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) every day against Donald Trump?

RUBIO: We're going to do it often.

QUESTION: Senator, your campaign has guaranteed that you will Florida.

RUBIO: We will win Florida.

QUESTION: You're guaranteeing that you will win Florida?

RUBIO: We will win Florida.

QUESTION: What happens if you don't?

RUBIO: We will win Florida.

QUESTION: Are you comfortable with the phrase anti-Trump, as the anti-Trump candidate?

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: Well, he's the front-runner. And I think the only way he's going to be stopped is if voters coalesce around someone to stop him.

A significant majority of Republicans don't want Donald Trump. Right now, they're all divided up among all these other people that are running. I think it's time to coalesce around someone that can beat him and stop him, but also around someone that can unite the party and grow it, and that's the argument I'm making, that that's me.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

RUBIO: Guys, Donald Trump is the front-runner. He's now won the last three states.

He leads in every poll, as he likes to remind us every day. And so the time for action is now. Again, it goes back to what I said. If you sense a sense of urgency, it's not just about winning or losing. It's about the idea that the party of Reagan and the conservative movement can fall into the hands of someone who's a con man, who's pulling the ultimate con job on the American public.

This is a guy who claims to stand for the working class, when in fact his entire business career, he's been sticking it to working-class Americans. This is a guy who claims he's the strongest anti- immigration person in the race, and yet he uses illegal immigrants to built Trump Tower and has imported foreign workers to take away jobs from Americans in my own home state.

This is a guy who portrays himself as a tough guy. He's not a tough guy. This is a guy who inherited $200 million. And had it not been for that, he'd be selling watches in Times Square. So, my point to you is that we're not going to let someone like that take over the conservative movement after everything that this party has gone through and this country's gone through.

The last thing we need is a con man as president.

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: I'm sorry. Yes, because I got to get out.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

RUBIO: Well, the way to grow our economy is to make this country the easiest and best place in the world to start a new business or grow an existing one.

Why now we are not that, because we have the highest combined corporate tax rate in the world. I have a plan to lower that, not only lower the tax rate, but allow businesses to immediately expense their investment.

We need to roll back and cap the growth of regulations. I have a plan to do that through our regulatory budget. We need to deal with Social Security and Medicare so we can save those programs and bring our debt under control. We have outlined a plan to do that.

We need to fully utilize our energy resources, which is critically important to Oklahoma, but also to manufacturing all across this country. We have outlined a plan to do that. And we need to repeal and replace Obamacare.

And that involves a lot more than Donald Trump's plan to get rid of the lines around the states. We have a complex, an important plan to help get all Americans have access to quality health care in a way that allows then to control their choices, not the government.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, there you have it, Marco Rubio speaking live to reporters in Oklahoma City, where he is campaigning. What a day. Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow. You're watching CNN,

in for Brooke Baldwin today, and what a day, an unbelievable day on the campaign trail.

Over the past three hours, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump have traded insults, in the middle of it all, Trump coming out revealing a bombshell endorsement.

Let me set this all up for you. We begin with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who just announced he is backing Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The one person Hillary and Bill Clinton do not want to see on that stage come next September is Donald Trump. They know how to run the standard political playbook against junior senators and run them around the block.

They do not know the playbook with Donald Trump because he is rewriting the playbook. He is rewriting the playbook of American politics, because he's providing strong leadership that's not dependent upon the status quo. And so the best person to beat Hillary Clinton in November on that stage last night is undoubtedly Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Christie said he made his mind up Thursday night after watching the debate, then a huge, huge announcement this morning just after Rubio held quite a rally, really taking on Donald Trump.

CNN's Sara Murray is in Fort Worth, Texas, and it's where the news conference with Governor Christie and Trump just wrapped up.

Sara, Trump tore into Marco Rubio repeatedly, repeatedly after that Rubio rally, just back and forth, all day long.

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, you can tell how big the stakes are going into March 1, because everyone just flipped a switch and turned it up to 11, whether that means attacks, whether that means endorsements.

Today, Donald Trump just threw everything he had at Marco Rubio. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to beat guys like that. See, it's guys like that -- and he's a nasty guy. I called him a nasty little guy, but I wouldn't say that, because he's a nasty guy.

[15:05:08]

And we don't need nasty. We don't need nasty. Honestly, there's no place for it. No, he's a nervous basket case. Here's a guy -- you ought to see him -- you ought to see him backstage. He was putting on makeup with a trowel.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: No. I don't want to say that. I will not say that he was trying to cover up his ears. I will not say that. No, he was just trying to cover up -- he was just trying to cover up the sweat that pours -- I never saw -- did you ever see a guy sweat like this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: So, Poppy, you heard him there. He called Rubio a choke artist. He said he was scared like a little puppy. He made fun of Rubio's appearance.

You would have almost guessed that it wasn't Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio who were attacking Donald Trump, because, by comparison, he was almost friendly to Ted Cruz, whereas he just ripped into Rubio over and over again here at this rally today.

HARLOW: Right, right, but in a sense it sort of seemed like Cruz and Rubio united against Trump last night at the debate. So we will keep watching.

Sara Murray live for us there in Fort Worth, thank you.

When it comes to last night and that CNN debate hosted by our very own Wolf Blitzer, more than 14 million of you watched it, as Republican front-runner Donald Trump took incoming fire from his -- literally from his left and right, from both sides, standing between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as the two senators hurled attack after attack, insult after insult against Trump.

And the debate was certainly not the end of the smackdown. It looks like it is just beginning, what appears to be really a new Marco Rubio taking a much more conversational and Trump-like, frankly, tone, continued to pummel Trump through the morning, all morning today and this afternoon starting with Trump's tweets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: "Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night." This is true.

(LAUGHTER)

RUBIO: "The problem is, he is a talker. And once a talker, always a choker." I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled choker C-H- O-C-K-E-R, chocker.

"Leightweight chocker Marco Rubio looks like a little boy on stage, not presidential material."

He meant to say lightweight, but he spelled it L-E-I-G-H-T. So he got that wrong. Looks like a little boy on stage. It's not that I looked like a little boy. I wouldn't even be the youngest president, but he would be the oldest president ever elected and it's like an eight-year term, so you start to worry.

"Wow. Every poll said I won the debate last night." Now, this was him about himself, OK? "Great honer." I think he meant to say great honor. I don't know how he got that wrong, because the E and the O are nowhere near each other on the keyboard. Great honer. All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right, where do we begin?

We have got the best to talk to us about it, CNN political commentator Republican strategist Margaret Hoover, Alex burns is with us, national political reporter for "The New York Times." Ryan Williams, a former spokesman for Mitt Romney's campaign. Jackie Kucinich, senior politics editor at The Daily Beast.

Thank you all for being here.

Margaret, let me begin with you. Just first off, the fact that this Chris Christie endorsement comes as a bombshell. It didn't leak at all, which is pretty amazing in this day and age. This comes an hour after Marco Rubio is gaining so much steam in that rally there and taking on Trump, just like Trump takes on everyone else.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, look, this has become an incredibly interesting day in the presidential race.

Nobody could have expected the magnitude of what that means with Chris Christie endorsing Trump. What it means is that you finally have a -- the patina of seriousness around Donald Trump. You have -- Chris Christie, whatever you think of him, is a serious guy. He's been elected twice as a governor. He's in charge of keeping people safe.

He's in charge of budgets. He's in charge of making serious and consequential decisions about other people's lives. And even though when he was running against Donald Trump two weeks ago, he didn't think Donald Trump was serious enough or responsible enough to be the president of the United States, now he does.

HARLOW: He called him entertainer in chief.

HOOVER: He does.

But now he does. And that actually really has serious consequences, I think, for the race. If you don't mind, Poppy, I think what you're going to see is basically two strategies from Republican establishment for Trump. And Chris Christie is establishment.

One strategy is, do what Marco Rubio's doing right now, fight like hell and do everything you can to stop him. And the other one is going to be Chris Christie's, which is maybe , maybe you can get on the inside and influence the candidate and hopefully influence him to making good, responsible, you know, justified decisions. HARLOW: Alex, to you. You have said following the debate last night,

all the back and forth, following the Rubio remarks at this rally and then following Trump sort of mocking him at the end of his rally just now, you have said that this actually has quite big effects for the general, not necessarily positive.

[15:10:04]

ALEX BURNS, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think it certainly does, Poppy, that if you look at the attacks that they traded on stage last night, this is not just irrelevant material that's going to go away when the primary is over, Trump talking about Rubio's credit cards, his mortgages in Florida, his personal finances in a number of ways.

Both Rubio and Cruz bringing up the whole Trump University saga. There's a pretty influential conservative group now running television ads about the Trump University issue. This stuff is going to drag on for as long as the primary goes, and whoever emerges, even if it's not Trump, even if the national party gets the guy they want, there is just no prospect for a neat and swift conclusion to this primary anymore.

HARLOW: Jackie, I just wonder, to you, you know, taking sort of the other perspective here, and that is the people have spoken and they have spoken loudly and they keep speaking en masse for Donald Trump.

So is everything turned on its head, politics as we know it? Have we reached the point where perhaps comments like this don't come back to bite Donald Trump if he makes it to a general?

JACKIE KUCINICH, THE DAILY BEAST: It's hard to think it wouldn't come back to bite him, honestly, if he makes it to a general. But he's got to get there first.

We will have to see with Super Tuesday coming up. And then you have the 15th. March 15 is going to be a very big day in this race. See if Trump even gets there. Not to mention if someone tries to mount some kind of convention challenge. There's just a lot of variables that are still out there, Poppy.

HARLOW: I think I lost you guys, but if I do still have you with me, Ryan, can you hear me?

RYAN WILLIAMS, REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: Yes.

HARLOW: Ryan, when you look at all this, where's Ted Cruz in all of it, because obviously he was sort of front and center next to Trump in the debate last night, today, not a peep. What do you do if you're Ted Cruz's camp right now?

You ran strategy, you worked with Romney. If you're sitting there thinking, oh, my gosh, they're getting all the headlines, how do we jump in?

WILLIAMS: Well, Ted Cruz is lost right now. He has been washed out in the day after debate coverage. He's not engaging with Trump, as Rubio has.

I think Rubio is very smart coming out as he did very kind of hot and heavy in the morning. People wanted to I think see that from Rubio, to sustain the attacks he did in the debate. Trump has -- rather, Cruz has been largely quiet today. He's going to have to jump back in the fray here if he's going to have the attention he's going to need to do well on Super Tuesday.

A lot of people want to see him get out of the race now. They want to see the party coalesce behind Rubio to take on Trump one on one. Unless he makes some noise or does something in the next few days, he's going to be in kind of a weak spot heading into Super Tuesday and afterwards.

HARLOW: I think it's so important for the viewers and voters just to remember that Chris Christie and Donald Trump have many a time traded tough words. Here's just one example from December.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Honestly, it was tough. They had the flood, they had the hurricane, and Obama went to New Jersey and it was like -- he was like a little child. He was like a little boy, oh, I'm with the president. Remember, he flew in the helicopter and he was all excited to be in the helicopter. I said, I would have put you in my helicopter. It's much nicer.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: It's true. No, I thought it was a terrible thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And you have Christie who has called Trump the entertainer in chief, Margaret Hoover, who has also said he doesn't have the temperament to be president, and now he's backing him, standing alongside him.

Margaret, do you read this at all as a move by Christie to say to the -- quote, unquote -- "establishment," which he's part of, you have got to rally behind this guy or we're going to lose in the general?

HOOVER: Yes, look, I think that's where Chris Christie is coming from.

The other things about Chris Christie, though, is, first of all, we have known him for a long time. He doesn't really particularly think senators are going to make great presidents. He's a chief executive of a state. He thinks it should have been a governor who would have gotten the nomination. Donald Trump is an executive. He does make decisions. So, there's that.

There's also bad blood between Marco Rubio and Chris Christie. I don't know how much that would affect a decision like this. But it's weird because you have sort of gotten -- this entire thing has sort of turned on its head. Today is the day where Donald Trump, who didn't need any serious endorsements -- he is running on his own. This is an insurgency from the outside is rallying him into Washington, now has an establishment figure endorsing him.

Meanwhile, it's the same day that Marco Rubio has found his inner Donald Trump and he's actually frankly found a line of attack that may be the only thing that works with Donald Trump. You fight fire with fire. You give him some of his own medicine with a little bit of humor.

He looked like Jimmy Kimmel up there reading the negative tweets that movie stars get about themselves. It is sort of funny and might be the only thing that actually effectively works to push back against Trump.

HARLOW: Ryan, I wonder what you think, just coming from sort of your experience with Mitt Romney's camp and just any insight you have into Rubio. Margaret brings up a really interesting point, found his inner Donald Trump.

But ultimately this is a long, drawn-out campaign. We have months and months ahead, and whoever you really are comes through. Is what we saw from Marco Rubio this morning in that rally, is that more the real Marco Rubio or is the New Hampshire debate stage Marco Rubio the real Marco Rubio?

WILLIAMS: I think the Marco we saw last night is the young dynamic energetic candidate that many people have been waiting to see for a long time now. He took the fight to Trump, which he had not done before. He did it effectively. He prosecuted him not just on his flip-flops on policy, but his business record as a con man, someone who claims to be for working Americans, but has built his empire on the backs of people who weren't here legally, on projects that resulted in bankruptcies.

[15:15:08]

That is the effective line of attack. He did it. He's narrowed at least in the press today this to a two-person race, which is what his campaign wants heading into Super Tuesday.

Alex, when you look at all of this, and you look at all the back and forth and the fact that Ben Carson and John Kasich have not been mentioned once all day, no one is talking to them. There's a lot of talk about some people having to get out of this race, to narrow it down, either before Super Tuesday or the day after. What is your take? What do you foresee happening there?

BURNS: I think it all goes to the point you made before about Senator Cruz having been just totally lost in the shuffle today. Rubio trying to sort of fight this on Trump's terms.

They're all fighting on Trump's terms, that a really successful debate performance last night or earlier in the campaign for any of these candidates would have involved not just taking it to Trump, but sort of changing the terms of the debate in this race, so that it is not just about who's trying to deliver the harshest insult on the stage, but where they're actually making an affirmative case for themselves that breaks through and sort of elevates the tone of this campaign some way.

It's clearly too late for that at this point. The question now for somebody like Rubio, and really Rubio more than anyone else, is, can he get folks like Kasich, can he get folks like Cruz on board with the idea that unless we ban together we're all going to get swept away?

HARLOW: Yes. They'd all like to be the front-runner in the group of three and they don't want to have to jump on someone else's ship.

Guys, let's just take a moment and listen to Senator Lindsey Graham. Whatever you think about him, this is someone who's been in the game a long time, someone who was running for president, dropped out. Here's what he said about his own party today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The most dishonest person in America is a woman...

(LAUGHTER)

GRAHAM: ... who is about to be president. How could that be? My party has gone bat (EXPLETIVE DELETED) crazy.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Jackie Kucinich, your thoughts?

KUCINICH: Lindsey Graham might not be in this race, but he is winning this race every time he opens his mouth. He's having a blast. You can see it there.

He is a sort of folksy character who you never know what he's going to say next. And he's managed to turn his frustration with the party into something he can laugh at, which, at this point, considering he was a Jeb Bush supporters, is probably healthy for Lindsey Graham.

HARLOW: Take a look at this photo, guys. I want to show you this photo from last night. Trump standing there. Rubio comes over to Cruz, shakes hands. Maybe we can re-rack it and play it for you again. Let's just talk about that.

You know, Jackie, just add on to your thought with -- it looks like almost an alliance some are saying between the two.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

KUCINICH: That's right. He almost looks like he was going to shake Donald Trump's hand and then thought better of it and turned away. Donald Trump was having none of it. There's this moment there right after it.

But I don't know if it's an alliance as much as a collegiality. They're in the same boat here. Here they are both basically neck and neck in all the polls. They're basically second and third, within a couple of tenths of a percentage point. Donald Trump is trouncing both of them. So it's like the enemy of my enemy is my friend here.

HARLOW: Ryan, to you. You worked with, you worked for Mitt Romney. What do you think is going on here? And also any insight into why Mitt Romney jumped into all this with the tax returns?

WILLIAMS: I think Mitt's raising a very important point, which is where are Donald Trump's tax returns? This is a very standard question that candidates running for governor, for Senate on both sides get asked, to release their tax returns.

During our campaign in 2012, we had a lot of problems with it. We waited a while to release them. It hurt us. And, look, the governor wants to see a Republican win. We need to have a nominee who's vetted. Trump should release them, as Senator Rubio and Senator Cruz are doing. What does he have to hide? What is he hiding?

Is it a tax issue? Or is he lying about his wealth? We don't know. But he should put them out. That's a point Governor Romney has raised by ejecting himself into this campaign.

HARLOW: And Romney, look, frankly, went through months and months of bad press in the election before he released any of his. So he knows what that's like.

Margaret Hoover, final point?

HOOVER: I just think, Mitt Romney is getting involved in this debate, but the way he could most get involved and make a serious impact right now is to endorse.

There's a real question. I'm not sure why Mitt Romney is waiting on the sidelines, because if there's a moment to do it, it's now. And the likelihood is he would endorse a Marco Rubio, not a Donald Trump or Cruz.

HARLOW: Ryan, would he? Is he going to get behind anyone soon?

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I haven't talked to him about it, but he is obviously interested in the race and perhaps he will make an endorsement at a later point in time.

HARLOW: We're going to take a commercial break, so you give him a call and we come back on the other side. Let us know what he says.

I should note, too, if we can show that handshake again, that happened in the middle of the debate, by the way. That wasn't like the end of the debate, the debate is over, and everyone is walking off stage. This happened in the middle of the debate and Donald Trump stands there staring straight through it all.

Much more, including the other man of the night we haven't talked about yet, and that is our very own Wolf Blitzer, who somehow, somehow managed to be an expert moderator despite all of the back and forth and jabs here and there. Wolf is live with me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's Rubio.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Just one of the many jabs back and forth traded today between Marco Rubio and Donald Trump and last night on that debate stage in the CNN GOP debate, the final one before voters head to the polls on Super Tuesday.

How on earth do you moderate something like that? You know who knows how to do it extremely well? This man, our very own Wolf Blitzer.

Wolf, I have to get in your head and hear what it was like being on that stage moderating through all of that.

First, though, I just want your take from your years and years of experience in politics on the really surprise bombshell endorsement of Governor Christie backing Trump today.

[15:25:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It was a surprise. I was surprised.

I thought Chris Christie might sit it out for a while. But for him to come in and so aggressively, assertively, positively endorse Donald Trump, it is a big deal today. Obviously, it's going to dominate the news cycle right now.

It's very good news for Donald Trump. And he really did a lot of the work for Donald Trump. Donald Trump doesn't have any trouble retaliating against, let's say, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, but Chris Christie really went after Marco Rubio today.

So it was a double team, if you will, on Marco Rubio. Yesterday, last night at the debate, it was a double team against Trump by both Cruz and Rubio, and Donald Trump, you know, when you attack him, he attacks you right back.

So it's been a lively, lively 24, 48 hours and it's probably just beginning. HARLOW: Probably just beginning. We're looking at images of Marco

Rubio at a rally in Oklahoma City speaking live. We will take you to that in just a moment.

But what do you make of sort of what has transpired today Wolf following the jabs back and forth last night on the debate stage? Then Rubio comes out with this rally where he is very sort of Trump- like in his insults against Trump and then Trump comes out and does the same thing in Fort Worth, Texas?

BLITZER: I think both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz realize the next few days are do or die right now. If someone is going to bring down Donald Trump and prevent him from getting the Republican presidential nomination, they have to do it now.

That's why Rubio last night came right out and immediately started. It was a new gesture, a new effort on his part, a new strategy, if you will, no holds barred. He really went after Trump and Trump responded, as he always does. Cruz did exactly the same thing. Cruz has got big race coming up Tuesday, Super Tuesday.

But, in Texas, he's got to win in Texas. If he doesn't win in his home state, that's a big, big problem. And Rubio as the so-called establishment candidate right now with Jeb Bush out and others like Chris Christie out, Jeb -- Marco Rubio knows if he's going to bring down Trump, he has to do it now and he came out swinging. It got very, very tough.

And, as I said, I think it's going to get even tougher in the next hours and days.

HARLOW: What moment to you, Wolf, stood out the most last night? I think we all, as journalists, wonder what it's like standing in your shoes. What was it like last night, what stood out the most?

BLITZER: Well, right at the beginning, almost the first question we were talking about immigration, we were talking about major issues, all of the questions involved serious substantive issues, whether the economy, Obamacare.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Actually, Wolf, let's listen in really quickly to Marco Rubio talking about that right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

RUBIO: Let me tell you something, I will never quit, I will never stop until we keep a con man from taking over the party of Reagan and the conservative movement.

He's a con man. He's a con man. He's a con man. I'll tell you why. Number one, look, people are angry, and frustrated, and scared about the future, OK? People are working harder than they have ever worked in their lives and they're running in place. And he swoops in and is taking advantage of that. He is taking advantage of that. He's telling people, I'm going to fight for the little guy. I'm

fighting for the working class. Here's what he doesn't tell them. He has spent a career in business, 50 years, sticking it to the little guy. Sticking it to the little guy. When his companies went bankrupt, the first people that didn't get paid were the subcontractors, the plumbers and the pipe fitters and the people that laid bricks and all those people that work for a living.

They didn't get paid. He got his money. They didn't get theirs. He's going around telling people, oh, I'm fighting to keep other countries from taking our jobs. What is he talking about? Have you ever if you bought a Trump tie? If you buy a Trump tie...

HARLOW: All right, that's Marco Rubio speaking in Oklahoma City.

Wolf, back to you. You were just saying the moment that stood out the most last night?

BLITZER: When Rubio really came out right at the top and he started swinging, I thought it was going to get intense. I didn't think it was going to get that intense.

And I was pretty surprised how quickly the conversation got to that level of back and forth. The rules of debate like this are, if a candidate is criticized or attacked by someone else, that candidate has a chance to respond. And, of course, they were going back and forth.

You have to give the other candidate a chance to respond. And then they started talking over each other. There's a delicate balance. It's a debate. So, you want to see them debate. You want the voters out there to get a better appreciation of where these candidates stand on critically important issues.

So, you want to see them have these kinds of exchanges. The important thing is to have an opportunity to keep it going, and keep the important subjects there and try to give everybody a chance to respond. It's not an easy challenge for a moderator. I can tell you that.

HARLOW: It's not an easy dance at all. And you danced it extremely well, my friend. Where do you think, Wolf, this Marco Rubio has been?

BLITZER: The one we're seeing now?

HARLOW: Yes.

BLITZER: I thought, you know, I don't know -- if his strategists probably thought earlier on the way to go was to avoid a direct attack on Donald Trump, because Donald Trump makes it clear, you attack him, he's going to come right back.

And, as we see today, he's really going after Marco Rubio in ways that -- making fun of him with the drinking of the water and all that kind of stuff. And -- and Rubio is not stepping back.