Marco Rubio struggled on Saturday to fend off a string of searing attacks from Chris Christie as the Florida senator's establishment rivals tried to halt his campaign surge by branding him as too inexperienced and unaccomplished to be president.
Rubio appeared seriously rattled by the exchanges at the final Republican presidential debate before Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. He repeatedly tried to fight off Christie -- without much effect -- by shifting the focus to President Barack Obama and the Democrats.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, was booed during an exchange with Jeb Bush. The billionaire then turned on the audience, suggesting it was made up of party figures and big donors and was therefore biased against him -- and the booing escalated.
But it was Christie, who is making a do-or-die last stand in New Hampshire, who proved relentless on the debate stage, blasting Rubio as someone who delivers soaring speeches but has never made a consequential decision in his political life.
"Marco, the thing is this," Christie said at the ABC debate at St. Anselm's College in New Hampshire. "When you're president of the United States, when you're a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn't solve one problem for one person," Christie said.
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Christie also slammed Rubio's poor attendance record in the Senate.
"That's not leadership, that's truancy," Christie said.
Rubio tried to blunt Christie's attack by saying that he had not wanted to leave the campaign trail to return to New Jersey before a major snow storm last week. The senator then spoke of the aspirations of the American people.
But Christie had none of it, refusing to let Rubio wiggle out of the way of his assault, playing on a narrative advanced by Rubio's opponents that he has simply learned a fluent stump speech and deploys it every time he appears in public.
"There it is, the memorized 20 second speech," Christie told the crowd.
Rubio did find a firmer footing later when the conversation turned to foreign policy. But the ferocious exchange with Christie, the most combative pre-meditated assault of the 2016 season, is likely to be played over and over again on news shows in the run-up to the primary.
While it was was not immediately clear whether the showdown would seriously harm Rubio's chances on Tuesday, it did appear to have the potential to dent his momentum after a stronger-than-expected third place finish in the Iowa caucuses. A CNN/WMUR poll released on Friday, meanwhile, found Rubio in second place in New Hampshire.
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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush added to the Rubio criticism, saying that Americans shouldn't gamble on a candidate who doesn't have executive experience.
"Marco Rubio is a gifted politician and he may have the skills to be president of the United States," Bush said.
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