Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has changed tactics and has been attacking his GOP presidential rival and friend, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, as Cruz has been gaining momentum.
Rubio has been hitting Cruz on national security as the race focuses more and more on the threat of terrorism,
The New York Times notes in a story published Sunday.
"More quietly, he is trying to muddy the perception that Mr. Cruz is a hard-liner on immigration, asserting that Mr. Cruz supports 'legalizing people that are in this country illegally,'" he Times says.
Cruz is running second in Iowa to front-runner Donald Trump, which is one reason Rubio feels the need to take him down before he gains a toehold in the early voting states.
"And with right-of-center Republicans like Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John R. Kasich effectively making a last stand in New Hampshire, the Republican establishment could be delayed in coalescing around a Rubio candidacy — making stopping Mr. Cruz, or at least slowing him, all the more urgent," according to the Times.
"I think he has got a head of steam," Iowa state Sen. Rick Bertrand said of Cruz. But Bertrand, a Rubio support added, "I believe Cruz’s time is now and he is peaking too early."
Rubio's tactic has been to try to tie Cruz to liberal New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the American Civil Liberties Union. Rubio says Cruz worked with them "to harm our intelligence programs."
Rubio also paints Cruz as weak on immigration, backing "a massive expansion" of green cards and work visas.
"There are Republicans, including Sen. Cruz, that have voted to weaken those programs," Rubio told Fox News on Cruz's vote to end the National Security Agency's metadata collection program that expired Nov. 30.
He told radio host Hugh Hewitt that Cruz "voted for a budget that basically gutted our foreign aid program, particularly our defense of the Israelis."
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