Marco Rubio defends his 'robotic' moment: 'I would pay them to keep running that clip'
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) defended the series in Saturday night's GOP debate during which he repeated the same statement attacking President Barack Obama almost verbatim four times, even as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) called him out for repeating a "memorized, 25-second speech."
On ABC's "This Week," Rubio told host George Stephanopoulos that he hopes the clip of what some have called "robotic" keeps getting airtime.
"Actually, I would pay them to keep running that clip, because that's what I believe - passionately," he said. "It's one of the reasons why I'm not running for reelection to the Senate and I'm running for president."
Stephanopoulos then brought up the criticism directed at Rubio for repeating the same statement, even as Christie dinged him for being overly scripted.
"I'm going to keep saying it because it's true," he said. "It is at the core of our campaign. ... It's what I believe and what I'm going to continue to say."
Here was the exchange between Rubio and Christie that has earned Rubio much criticism.
Within minutes, rival campaigns capitalized. A brutal super-cut video of Rubio repeating the line four times began circulating online, and a "Marco Rubio Glitch" Twitter account also sprang up, firing off different versions of the "Obama knows exactly what he's doing" line.