Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Humbled by his disastrous performance in New Hampshire, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) hit the campaign trail in South Carolina on Thursday and did what he has refrained from doing for months -- attacking real estate mogul and GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
"Donald Trump has zero foreign policy experience. Negotiating a hotel deal in another country is not foreign policy experience," Rubio said at a campaign event in Okatie, South Carolina.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, the senator also raised doubts about whether Trump had the proper temperament for the presidency, which he said "requires you to do things in a way that’s calm and collected and cool and not emotionally driven."
Up to this point, Rubio has mostly handled Trump with kid gloves. He and his super PAC have instead focused their fire on Republican rivals like Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, believing that moderates would slowly coalesce around an establishment candidate and that a risky confrontation with a bomb-thrower like Trump was unnecessary.
But Rubio's stinging fifth-place finish in the Granite State forced them to change strategy. If he doesn't do well in the South Carolina primary, where Trump is currently favored by a large margin, he may very well have to kiss his campaign goodbye.
On Thursday, Rubio also took a swing at Trump for using profanity in public. The businessman had indirectly called Cruz a "pussy" a day before going on to win the New Hampshire primary by a huge margin.
"There are certain words you don't say. You've got a leading presidential candidate saying profanity from a stage," Rubio said disapprovingly. That sentiment could help the Florida senator gain some traction with the Palmetto State's large population of evangelicals.
CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, this article previously misstated that Trump called Rubio a "pussy"; the comment was made in reference to Cruz.
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