The news media will be "like the hounds of hell" tearing apart Donald Trump's business record and more if he is chosen as the GOP presidential nominee, rival Marco Rubio said Saturday, continuing a series of fierce attacks he started against the New York real estate mogul at Thursday night's debate.
"You guys are sharpening your knives," the senator from Florida told reporters at a
press conference in Kennesaw, Georgia, before his afternoon election rally. "As soon as he's the nominee, they're going to descend on him like the hounds of hell and they're going to tear him apart for all the horrible things he's done in his business career."
Rubio also peppered his Saturday attack on Trump with accusations that the front-runner is a "con man," a "fraud," and not a real Republican — labels that came to the fore in Thursday's nasty debate exchanges.
Rubio vowed that the media won't be alone in examining Trump's record.
"He's fooled a number of voters around the country into believing he is what he says he is," Rubio told the reporters. "We are looking forward to examining his record. When this process is finished Donald Trump will not have the 1,237 delegates he needs to win."
Trump, for one, is "not as rich as he says he is," said Rubio. "This a guy who inherited millions of dollars from his father. Had he put that money in an index stock market fund he would one of the richest person in the world. He would have had had more money than Warren Buffett. Instead he put that money on a bunch of risky business deals."
Further, said Rubio, Trump is "going around telling people he's this great businessman, successful in business. It's part of the fraud he perpetuates. He took four companies into total bankruptcy. This is a guy who had his creditors put him on an allowance. We got calls all over the place in the last 48 hours. Bankers calling us. Other people saying all kinds of insight into Donald Trump."
Rubio promised that he will win states on Tuesday and after that, "I don't care if I have to get in my pick-up truck and drive around the country like I did when I ran for the Senate. Donald Trump will never be the nominee for the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan."
Meanwhile, he insisted, there is a "growing consensus in this party that we cannot nominate a con artist to become the head of the party of Lincoln and Reagan and the conservative movement, an individual who has never even voted in a Republican primary."
Further, he said, Trump agrees with Hillary Clinton on Planned Parenthood and on remaining neutral when it comes to Israel, and that "if you don't sponsor government-sponsored health care you're in favor of letting people die in the streets."
And such stances, said Rubio, are a "dream for the Democratic Party."
Further, he does not agree that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, or retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson need to drop out of the race to clear the way for him to defeat Trump.
"The majority of Republican voters do not want Donald Trump to be the nominee," said Rubio. "They're going to support whoever is left standing that's fighting against him to ensure that we do not nominate a con artist to be the nominee of the Republican Party in very important election fight."
And, he said, the others have a right to remain in the race, as "they've worked just as hard as we have ... ultimately, the process of voters, the race will narrow down and when it does it will be a clear choice. And when voters have a clear choice between two people, that's when Donald Trump starts to lose. The sooner that happens the better off we're going to be as a party."
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