On Wednesday, two network morning show hosts had the audacity to accuse a Republican presidential candidate of a lack of “depth.” In an interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio, NBC Today co-hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie grilled the GOP contender on his recent debate performance and hyped it as “exposing a major flaw.”
In an attempt to disqualify Rubio, Lauer proclaimed: “...you feel it was just a bad performance, yet a lot of political analysts are saying it was something more serious, that it was exposing a major flaw in you as a candidate, and they translate that to a lack of depth. How do you answer that?”
Rubio dismissed the assertion:
Well, that's absurd because the truth of the matter is that if you look at this race, no one in this race, for example, has shown greater depth, knowledge, understanding or better judgment on the foreign policy issues than I have....I got asked a host of questions on complex things and I answered every single one of those questions with as much or more depth than anyone else in the race.
Guthrie followed by citing anonymous attack lines from the Senator’s opponents: “And how do you combat that perception, if it takes hold, that, you know, you are somebody that spouts off talking points? Or as one person said it from another campaign, that you're a mile wide but an inch deep?”
Rubio issued a challenge: “Well, I'm on the air with you right now, you can ask me any question you want on any policy issue that you would like and we can discuss those in depth. I don't know what you're going to ask me. I do this every day.”
The hosts failed to take up his offer. Instead, Lauer pressed: “In your heart, do you think anyone can stop Donald Trump from getting the nomination right now?”
Rubio responded by pointing out that Lauer and Guthrie failed to ask Trump a single policy question during a live interview with him only minutes earlier on the program:
Donald Trump’s not going to be the Republican nominee.... ultimately, to be president, you can't just go around telling people what's wrong, you have to tell people how you're going to fix it....I mean, we just had a conversation about depth. I mean, where is the policy ideas about how we're going to bring manufacturing back? It's not just enough to say you're going to do it, I think voters deserve to know how you're going to do it....And so, I think that's where the issue of depth that you just asked about comes into play.
Lauer began the Trump interview by wondering: “Are you now the favorite to be the next President of the United States?”
Moments later, Lauer did challenge the CEO on his use of profanity in campaign speeches:
It's serious now, Mr. Trump. I mean, now people are going to take a good, hard look at you and say, “Can he be the leader of the free world? Can he be our president?”...Now this New Hampshire win, though, says, this guy’s on track. When it comes to parents in this country, they want their kids to be able to look up to the president. They want them to be able to admire the president. You were on with us last week and we talked to you about being more subdued. You said, “I'm trying to become more statesmanlike, more subdued.” This week, you continued using some words, repeating a word that a supporter said to you at an event that I'm not going to repeat here. Is that statesmanlike?
Here is a full transcript of the February 10 interview with Rubio:
7:32 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Senator Marco Rubio ended up in fifth place in New Hampshire. He is still in Manchester this morning and he joins us now live. Senator Rubio, good morning, it’s good to see you. Thanks for getting up early.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO [R-FL]: Good morning. Oh, I'm up early every day. Thank you.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Marco Rubio on Stinging Loss in NH; Florida Senator Takes Blame for Poor Finish]
GUTHRIE: Up late and up early in this case.
RUBIO: Yeah.
GUTHRIE: You said last night to your supporters that you were disappointed. You were very straight forward about it. And you said the loss is not on them, it's on you. And it strikes me that this was really the first time you owned up to Saturday night's debate being not a great performance for you and having an effect. Do you think you should have said something like that sooner, been more authentic about it, and maybe that would have salvaged the moment?
RUBIO: Yeah, that's not the right analysis of it. Because look, the debate is the debate and I don't think the people at home analyze it the same way as the media. The problem is that 72 hours later, the media fixated on that and that's what happens in these campaigns. And so the last thing people heard about our campaign in many cases was something bad happened on Saturday night with Marco Rubio. And when you look at the margins between third place and fifth place, just a couple thousand votes, that's enough in an election like this to make a difference.
So, I wanted my supporters to know they ran a great campaign, they worked hard, they did everything they needed to do. To the extent we finished shorter than what we wanted to, it was because of me, and something’s that never going to happen again. We have eight debates in this campaign so far, I've done great in all of it but about a minute and a half, you know, 90 seconds worth of it, and that will never happen again. This election’s too important. It's not just about winning the election, it’s about what’s at stake here. And I think in the months and weeks to come, you’re not going to see anyone work harder or more passionately, not just to win an election, but to turn the country around.
LAUER: Senator, you say it will never happen again, and what that leads me to believe is you feel it was just a bad performance, yet a lot of political analysts are saying it was something more serious, that it was exposing a major flaw in you as a candidate, and they translate that to a lack of depth. How do you answer that?
RUBIO: Well, that's absurd because the truth of the matter is that if you look at this race, no one in this race, for example, has shown greater depth, knowledge, understanding or better judgment on the foreign policy issues than I have. And the fact of the matter is, that debate was two hours and fifteen minutes long. I got asked a host of questions on complex things and I answered every single one of those questions with as much or more depth than anyone else in the race. So I'm not worried about that part because I think both our record on those issues are clear and, moving forward, we're going to make it clear. There is not an issue before this country that I cannot discuss in depth with anyone in this race. And by the way, when it comes to foreign policy and national security, I have more experience and have done more work than all the other candidates remaining in the Republican side combined. So I look forward to that conversation as well, as we head into South Carolina.
GUTHRIE: And how do you combat that perception, if it takes hold, that, you know, you are somebody that spouts off talking points? Or as one person said it from another campaign, that you're a mile wide but an inch deep?
RUBIO: Well, I'm on the air with you right now, you can ask me any question you want on any policy issue that you would like and we can discuss those in depth. I don't know what you're going to ask me. I do this every day. So I don't think that's the narrative that's taking hold. I think the narrative that night was, “He had a bad debate,” people heard about it on the news. And where it really hurts is, you can't get any other message out because all they want to ask you about is the debate that night. So that’s on me, it’s not going to happen again. But we're going to get back to the fundamentals of what made us successful in the past. We're going to be the nominee, it’s just going to take a little longer, but we’re going to get there.
LAUER: I know you saw the results last night, you saw the margin of victory for Donald Trump. John Kasich had a good night. In your heart, do you think anyone can stop Donald Trump from getting the nomination right now?
RUBIO: Sure. Yeah, Donald Trump’s not going to be the Republican nominee. But New Hampshire’s a state that’s been badly hurt by, for example, losing jobs to China, the closing of mills, the loss of our manufacturing base. And Donald’s really tapped into that. And I think that's an important topic and it needs to be discussed, without a doubt. But ultimately, to be president, you can't just go around telling people what's wrong, you have to tell people how you're going to fix it.
I mean, we just had a conversation about depth. I mean, where is the policy ideas about how we're going to bring manufacturing back? It's not just enough to say you're going to do it, I think voters deserve to know how you're going to do it. And so, I don't know how you're going to continue to run a campaign into South Carolina and beyond without specifically outlining policy ideas on these issues. And so, I think that's where the issue of depth that you just asked about comes into play.
I can tell you we have a plan. I know exactly how we're going to bring manufacturing back. That’s why we need energy reform, that’s why we need tax reform. Our tax base – our tax code here is among the most expensive in the industrialized world. That’s why we need regulatory reform. Regulations put America at a competitive disadvantage globally. So we're getting into the part of the campaign now where the race is getting narrower and less people in the race, and there’s going to be a real focus on policy. And we'll see how people hold up. They're gonna have to step up and outline their solutions to these serious problems.
GUTHRIE: Senator Marco Rubio, thank you for your time this morning, we appreciate it.
RUBIO: Thank you.
