--- title: Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio Fight Turns Personal description: Bad blood is building between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in South Carolina, as the two freshmen senators spar for second place in the Palmetto... canonical: https://time.com/4227499/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-south-carolina-campaign/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-17T17:36:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:59.237Z article:section: Politics og:title: Cruz and Rubio Fight Turns Personal in South Carolina og:description: "Rubio's campaign has been reduced to spreading false Internet rumors." og:url: https://time.com/4227499/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-south-carolina-campaign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d0f55a70e0b3e14/69887e0b8e06010718464a53/ted-cruz-marco-rubio.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidates (R-L) Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) participate in the Fox News - Google GOP Debate January 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cruz and Rubio Fight Turns Personal in South Carolina twitter:description: "Rubio's campaign has been reduced to spreading false Internet rumors." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d0f55a70e0b3e14/69887e0b8e06010718464a53/ted-cruz-marco-rubio.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cruz and Rubio Fight Turns Personal in South Carolina > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Candidates: Watch a Marco Rubio Rally In Super Slow Motion [Watch (HLS stream): The Candidates: Watch a Marco Rubio Rally In Super Slow Motion](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9ZkiBluH.m3u8) (5:14)  _Published 2016-02-05. This video captures Marco Rubio at almost 1000 frames per second._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Feb 17, 2016 5:36 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidates (R-L) Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) participate in the Fox News - Google GOP Debate January 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Republican presidential candidates (R-L) Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) participate in the Fox News - Google GOP Debate January 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Feb 17, 2016 5:36 PM UTC Bad blood is building between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in South Carolina, as the two freshmen senators spar for second place in the Palmetto State. The latest flashpoint was a fake Facebook page claiming that South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy had withdrawn his endorsement of Marco Rubio to back Ted Cruz. There was no evidence that the Cruz campaign was behind the posting, but that didn’t stop Rubio from laying the blame on his Senate colleague and the type of campaign he is running. “It’s part of a pattern,” Rubio said. “They didn’t say they were supporting Donald Trump. They didn’t say they were supporting Ben Carson. So it’s just a pattern of people around his campaign that have continuously done things like that.” Asked again for evidence, he only replied that it was part of a pattern. Cruz’s campaign once again denied responsibility for the posting Tuesday. A Cruz campaign official said they were asked Facebook to delete the fake page. “We read about it, asked Facebook to take it down and it was down in less than five minutes,” the official said. On Tuesday Gowdy to released a statement blaming Cruz for the Facebook page, but also recorded a robo-call to 500,000 South Carolinians laying the blame on Cruz for negative push-polling allegedly conducted by the Cruz campaign. Cruz’s campaign has argued that Rubio has misconstrued his record to South Carolina voters, accusing him of still supporting “amnesty” and skipping votes on defense spending and defunding Planned Parenthood. “Rubio’s campaign has been reduced to spreading false Internet rumors,” said Cruz spokesman Brian Phillips. “It’s a sad development. But I suppose they’d rather lie about fake Facebook pages than own up to his support for amnesty, missing the fight on Planned Parenthood funding, and surrendering to the courts on marriage.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4227499/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-south-carolina-campaign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4227499/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-south-carolina-campaign/"},"headline":"Cruz and Rubio Fight Turns Personal in South Carolina","datePublished":"2016-02-17T17:36:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:59.237Z","description":"Bad blood is building between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in South Carolina, as the two freshmen senators spar for second place in the Palmetto...","url":"https://time.com/4227499/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-south-carolina-campaign/","keywords":["2016 Election","Sen. 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