Rubio: Too many leaders ‘trapped in the past’
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) delivered an earnest, high-minded speech to a conservative audience in South Carolina, explicitly asking voters to consider supporting him for president.
The address, one of a bevy of speeches by declared and possible 2016 GOP hopefuls, saw an uneasy-seeming Rubio describe a wide-ranging vision for the United States in the 21st century.
“We are still led by too many people who are trapped in the past,” Rubio told a subdued Freedom Summit.
{mosads}“We are at a hinge moment in our nation’s history. … I want you to believe that the 21st century will not be just as good as the 20th century: It will be better.”
The address was dramatic but short on the kind of red-meat appeals that typically brings a South Carolina conservative audience to its feet.
Rubio chose to focus on America’s role in global affairs, saying the next president must accept the “mantle of global leadership” for the United States, reinvigorate NATO and be watchful of Chinese actions in the South China Sea.
His earned big applause when he said the United States must “defeat radical jihadists,” quoting a line from action film “Taken,” saying: “We will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you.”
The speech was perhaps Saturday’s most formal. Rubio delivered it from behind the podium and mostly abstained from humor. The majority of his rivals, especially Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R ), roamed freely on the stage while giving looser, more personal remarks.
Still, Rubio seemed to engage the audience most while telling his personal story as the son of Cuban immigrants.
“I have a debt to America that I will never be able to repay,” he said. “But I believe that I must try.”
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