SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2016

Trump And Christie Join Forces Against Rubio

Donald Trump and new ally Chris Christie took turns hammering Marco Rubio on Friday after the New Jersey governor’s stunning endorsement of the GOP presidential front-runner.

The Hill’s Ben Kamisar says Christie and Trump surprised the political world with their joint announcement and then immediately dove into a full-throated rebuke of Rubio, whose campaign had been riding a wave of momentum thanks to attacks on Trump during a debate the night before.

“President of the United States is not a no-show job like you treated the United States Senate,” Christie said of Rubio, whom he repeatedly mocked during his own failed presidential campaign.

Trump then expanded the routine to include both criticism and physical comedy, dramatically pulling a water bottle from under the podium and pouring it out to mock the Florida senator.

“It’s Rubio,” he said to cheers from his supporters.

It was an unmistakable reference to Rubio’s penchant for water breaks while speaking, something immortalized in his oft-mocked GOP response to President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address.

The partnership between Trump and Christie joins the GOP front-runner with the politician who inflicted the most serious wounds so far on Rubio’s presidential bid.

Chris Christie Delivered A Major Blow to Party Elites Resisting Trump

Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur says the united Republican establishment front against Donald Trump started to crumble in a potentially profound way on Friday when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie backed the New York billionaire for president with an enthusiastic endorsement.

The move, combined with the endorsement of Maine Governor Paul LePage later Friday, added the establishment bona fides of two sitting U.S. governors to a devoutly outsider campaign. It also comes just days after Trump’s first two congressional endorsements in Representatives Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California.

No wonder on Friday, Ohio Governor John Kasich said “Nobody’s going to win but Trump.”