GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz "campaigns as a consistent conservative," rival candidate Marco Rubio said Friday, but the Texan has changed his opinion on many conservative topics.
"The only thing consistent [with Cruz] is the consistent political calculation that 'I'm going to change my position if it helps me politically in a given moment,'" Rubio told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"Don't run as a consistent conservative if, in fact, you have consistently calculated your positions, and that's what he'd done."
The topic came up in Thursday night's' GOP debate, Rubio said Friday, because "he launched into an attack, and so I responded with his record."
"He has flipped his position on birthright citizenship, on legalization of illegal immigrants and he wanted a 500 percent increase in guest workers," complained the Florida senator.
"He wanted to double the number of green cards. He did change his position on TPA. He wrote an article with Paul Ryan, before Paul Ryan was speaker, praising TPA. He used to lobby members to support TPA, and then four months later all of a sudden he flips on it.
"And we saw him flip his vote on crop insurance on the floor. I mean, I was standing right there. And then last week ethanol again in Iowa."
Rubio also insisted on Friday that he knew that the issue of Cruz' eligibility to become president, as he was born in Canada, would come up, but he thinks it went on too long.
"In the end you either care about it or you don't," said Rubio. "I don't. I think the bigger issue is the challenges before America and the damage Barack Obama's done to this country and the damage Hillary Clinton will continue to do."
Meanwhile, there are many pundits showing the GOP presidential race as being a three-way battle between Rubio, Cruz, and Donald Trump, and Rubio said Friday he prefers to just concentrate on his race.
"We're here in New Hampshire ready to work this morning. We'll be in Iowa all day tomorrow," said Rubio. "I thought last night was the beginning of the fourth quarter here in terms of Iowa."
Voters in early states typically make up their minds "very late," said Rubio, but he feels good about his campaign and believes the message "needs to be about who is best able to keep America safe, and undo the damage that Barack Obama has done to the United States of America."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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