Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) campaign is livid after hearing that his former mentor Jeb Bush’s super PAC is going to use a sizable chunk of his war chest to smear the senator who’s surpassed him in the polls.
The Right to Rise PAC has raised more than $100 million for Bush, and is reportedly launching a campaign ad that calls Rubio’s anti-abortion views too extreme to get elected.
Adds the New York Times: “The group’s chief strategist has boasted of his willingness to spend as much as $20 million to damage Mr. Rubio’s reputation and halt his sudden ascent in the polls, according to three people told of the claim.”
“Seething with anger and alarmed over Mr. Rubio’s rise, aides to Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, and his allies are privately threatening a wave of scathing attacks on his former protégé in the coming weeks, in a sign of just how anxious they have become about the state of Mr. Bush’s candidacy.”
At nearly midnight Eastern time, Rubio’s campaign fired off a fundraising email slamming the former Florida governor who once described himself as a “joyful tortoise” in the campaign.
“Not just talk about how they differ on the issues but to actively try to destroy Marco’s reputation. And they’re bragging about that? How is that the kind of ‘joyful’ campaign that Jeb claimed he wanted to run?!?!” exclaimed the Rubio campaign email.
On the abortion ad: “Honestly, it’s something we’d expect from Hillary and the mainstream media, but the fact that the Republican establishment believes this is what they need to do to take down Marco is astonishing.”
This morning, the Rubio campaign released an ad featuring old footage of Jeb talking about how he’s a “huge Marco fan” and stating the senator would be “a good president.”
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