--- title: Republican Debate: Watch Marco Rubio Crack a Yoga Joke description: Rubio was nodding to Trump's "flexibility" on the issues. canonical: https://time.com/4247446/republican-debate-marco-rubio-yoga-detroit/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-04T04:41:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T16:57:33.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Rubio Make a Yoga Joke at the Republican Debate og:description: Rubio was nodding to Trump's "flexibility" on the issues. og:url: https://time.com/4247446/republican-debate-marco-rubio-yoga-detroit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff62aa26f139ee3e/698880375f570f15ddb1fe62/timpeol-gop-republican-debate-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz-john-kasich-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Rubio Make a Yoga Joke at the Republican Debate twitter:description: Rubio was nodding to Trump's "flexibility" on the issues. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff62aa26f139ee3e/698880375f570f15ddb1fe62/timpeol-gop-republican-debate-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz-john-kasich-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Rubio Make a Yoga Joke At the Republican Debate > Sponsored content. 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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. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:57 PM UTCPublished: Mar 4, 2016 4:41 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio gestures as Donald Trump speaks during a debate on March 3, 2016, in Detroit. Republican presidential candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio gestures as Donald Trump speaks during a debate on March 3, 2016, in Detroit. Jim Young—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:57 PM UTCPublished: Mar 4, 2016 4:41 AM UTC Sen. Marco Rubio thought that maybe Republican presidential candidates needed some time off at Thursday’s Republican debate—to practice yoga. While front-runner Donald Trump argued with Sen. Ted Cruz, Rubio butted in to refocus the conversation. Apparently Rubio struck big with the health crowd, as this was the second most popular moment on Twitter during the Fox debate. “When they’re done with the yoga, can I answer a question?” Rubio asked the Fox moderators. Cruz didn’t seem to like the idea of practicing the popular exercise on-stage, when there was serious debating to be done, telling Rubio “You cannot. I really hope that we don’t see yoga on this stage.” Rubio clapped back with a joke about the billionaire’s propensity to change positions on the issues. “Well he’s very flexible, so you never know,” he said, pointing at Trump. Watch the clip above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4247446/republican-debate-marco-rubio-yoga-detroit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4247446/republican-debate-marco-rubio-yoga-detroit/"},"headline":"Watch Rubio Make a Yoga Joke At the Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-03-04T04:41:34.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T16:57:33.000Z","description":"\"Well he's very flexible, so you never know\"","url":"https://time.com/4247446/republican-debate-marco-rubio-yoga-detroit/","keywords":["Debates","republicans","2016 Election","Sen. 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