--- title: Marco Rubio Team Denies Iowa Surprise After Ted Cruz Shift description: Managing expectations even as race dynamics shift canonical: https://time.com/4200555/marco-rubio-ted-cruz-iowa/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-29T21:29:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:23.552Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio Team Denies Iowa Surprise After Ted Cruz Shift og:description: Managing expectations even as race dynamics shift og:url: https://time.com/4200555/marco-rubio-ted-cruz-iowa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecf78fde00bbd47e/69887b240b72e364166e7ddf/timepol-marco-rubio-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4270 og:image:height: 2402 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio Team Denies Iowa Surprise After Ted Cruz Shift twitter:description: Managing expectations even as race dynamics shift twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecf78fde00bbd47e/69887b240b72e364166e7ddf/timepol-marco-rubio-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Team Rubio Shoots Down Talk of Second Place Iowa Finish After Ted Cruz Shift > Sponsored content. 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GOP Debate-012816-v1_ by [Zeke J Miller / Muscatine, Iowa](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Muscatine, Iowa Jan 29, 2016 9:29 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Jan. 26, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Jan. 26, 2016. Chris Carlson—AP by [Zeke J Miller / Muscatine, Iowa](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Muscatine, Iowa Jan 29, 2016 9:29 PM UTC Florida Sen. Marco Rubio declared Friday that he had clear momentum in the final days before the Iowa caucus, citing as evidence a decision by his chief rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to shift negative ad spending away from Donald Trump to attack him. “Obviously they must be concerned about something,” Rubio said of the Cruz campaign at a stop along the Mississippi river in Muscatine. “You don’t spend money against a candidate if you’re not concerned about them.” But Rubio’s top aides also fiercely denied that a good debate performance Thursday, and the new concern from Cruz, could give the Florida senator a shot at second place in the Iowa caucuses, behind Cruz or Trump. “There is no question we are feeling some wind at our back,” said Todd Harris, Rubio’s political strategist. “And there’s no question that we had a great debate night, but it’s very hard to compete with the greatest show on earth and the greatest ground game in Iowa history. And so we feel very confident that what we need to do here is finish a strong third.” **Read more**: [Cruz Finds Himself in Crosshairs as Trump Skips Republican Debate](http://time.com/4199392/republican-debate-ted-cruz-donald-trump/) Asked directly if Rubio might finish in first or second place, Harris jokingly told the reporter to buzz off, though he used a different, unprintable word. Then Harris suggested how the reporter might write his comment in an article. “Asked whether second or first was in the cards, Rubio strategist Todd Harris said, and I’m quoting, f— off,” Harris said. The Rubio team, who is feeling good about its momentum in Iowa, does not want to raise expectations that might reduce the bounce a third place finish gives Rubio as the campaign shifts to New Hampshire next week. Rubio, meanwhile, responded to the news of Cruz’s new attack ads with a blistering counter assault on on his rival, accusing the Texas senator of a “history of calculation” rather than a pattern of being consistently conservative. “Obviously Senator Cruz is worried about my candidacy,” Rubio continued, before launching into an attack on his fellow freshman senator. “And he has a lot to answer for. Just today you saw we’re showing people a tweet that he put out during the immigration debate where he talked about how he supported legalization. So I think people are starting to learn the truth about Ted on immigration and a bunch of other issues, and it shows a history of calculation and I think it’s starting to hurt him a little bit.” Recent polls show Rubio approaching 20 percent in surveys of likely Iowa caucus-goers, just points behind Cruz and Trump, who are battling it out for first place. “We’ll see what it all turns into but, man, it’s par for the course,” Rubio added. **Read more**: [The Dawn of Reality TV Politics](http://time.com/4199232/republican-debate-reality-television/) Later, Rubio launched into a laundry list of attacks against Cruz highlighting past positions deemed to be inconsistently conservative, including work for George W. Bush’s immigration policies, his past support for legal status for some in the U.S. illegally, and support for the expansion of legal immigration. “Suddenly he’s against all of that because he wants to trump Trump on immigration,” Rubio said. Rubio also blasted Cruz for appearing to shift his support for the renewable fuels standard, talking tough on China after defending a Chinese company accused of stealing U.S. intellectual property, and his bombast against ISIS while supporting cuts to military spending. ## Transcript Welcome to the seventh Republican presidential debate. I'm a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly. And Ben, you're a terrible surgeon. [ LAUGH ] Now that we've gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way. [ LAUGH ] He's an entertaining guy, he's the greatest show on earth. I have not insulted Donald personally and I don't intend to. I kind of Donald Trump, he was a little teddy bear to me. I want to thank Everyone here for showing the men and women of Iowa the respect, to show up and make the case to the people of this state and people of the country why each of us believe we would make the best Commander- in- Chief. I've been held accountable for six years of the Governor of New Jersey. And with a Democratic legislature, I've gotten conservative Things done. That is exactly what I'll do as a president of United States. The ball collection of your phone data. The invasion of your privacy did not stop one terrorist attack. I don't think you have to give up your liberty for a fall sense of security. We cannot fix these things in this country. The sole security, the boarder Balancing the budget. Getting wages to grow faster. Unless we lead as conservatives, but we also invite people in from the other party. We need people who think out of the box, and can solve problems. The last four questions have been, Rand please attack Ted. Marco please attack Ted. Chris please attack Ted. Jeb please attack Ted. It is a debate, sir. If you guys ask one more mean question I may have to leave the stage. You cannot destroy ISIS with a military that's being diminished. When I'm President we are rebuilding the U. S. military because the world is a safer and a better place. When America's the strongest military in the world. You claim it is tough talk to discuss carpet bombing. It is not tough talk. It is a different fundamental military strategy than what we've seen from Barack Obama. We need to arm directly to Kurds, embed our troops with the Iraqi military, re- engage with the Sunni tribal leaders, get the lawyers off the damn backs of the military once and for all. Arming the allies of ISIS will make the situation worse. Then what we really need to do is defeat ISIS, but if you defeat Assad, what you will wind up with is a larger and more powerful ISIS that occupies that space. If there were someplace in this country where radical Jihadists are planning to attack the United States, we will go after them wherever they are, and if we capture them alive, They are going to Guantanamo. And if you wanna defend the country, it begins with border security, and this is where I've had my disagreement with Senator Rubio. You can't be in favor of defending us against Islam, radical Islam, if you're not for border security. I will support law Law enforcement and we will stop radical terrorist attacks in this country by supporting out intelligence community and our law enforcement community. We need to stop allowing political correctness to dictate our policies. We are a nation of immigrants. As such, everyone is welcome, from any race, any country, any religion if they wanna be Americans. We are not gonna round up and deport 12 million people but we are not gonna go around handing out citizenship cards either. Nations will have to make a choice. They can do business with Iran or they can do business with America. And I am very confident that they're going to choose America before they choose the Iranian economy. If we find out they're developing a nuclear weapon and we know how to get to it We're gonna go take it out. What we need to do is make sure that the war on drugs is equal protection under the law and that we don't unfairly incarcerate another generation of young African American males. Get rid of Planned Parenthood funding for the United States of America. [ APPLAUSE ] Bernie Sanders is a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is a good candidate for president of Sweden. Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being the Commander and Chief of the United States. 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