WASHINGTON — Donald Trump unleashed a stinging TV ad Monday that blasts his chief rival in the Florida primary as “corrupt” and a ”total crook.”
The ad attacking Sen. Marco Rubio comes eight days before the state’s winner-take-all primary, which could propel Trump closer to the GOP nomination or lead to a protracted battle at the party’s July convention.
“Corrupt Marco Rubio has spent years defrauding the people of Florida,” the Trump ad proclaims.
“Lightweight Senator Marco Rubio is a dishonest person.”
The commercial then runs through big personal expenses that Rubio put on a state Republican Party credit card in Florida.
“He used the Republican Party’s credit card to pave his driveway and live it up in Las Vegas,” says the ad’s narrator, as images appear of an asphalt spreading machine and a Las Vegas show girl decked out in a pink costume.
Party credit-card statements released by the Rubio campaign earlier this election cycle show that he charged $3,765 for paving tiles and $5,000 for a stay at the Venetian hotel in Vegas.
But the campaign says the charges were accidentally placed on the wrong credit card and notes that the party was reimbursed.
The ad also brands Rubio as a “total no-show” for having missed Senate votes.
“In my opinion, he is a total crook and I am doing the people of Florida a great favor by further exposing him,” Trump said in a release trumpeting the ad.
The Rubio camp fired back that Trump had donated to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in Crist’s 2010 race against Rubio and was now “recycling the same false and negative attacks about Marco.”
“Real solutions, no bombastic rhetoric,” Rubio tweeted in response.
But an anti-Trump PAC wasn’t being so gentle.
It announced plans to air an attack ad that shows Trump in front of a White House lectern, before cutting away to the candidate using profanities that include “motherf–ker,” “pussy,” “s–t,” and f—k.”
Marco Rubio speaks at his rally in Sanford, Fla.Zumapress The ad will air starting Tuesday in conservative Pensacola and Panama City — areas where Trump is running strongly — said the American Future PAC.
The Florida primary is March 15, the same day as showdowns in Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri.
On Tuesday, voters are going to the polls in Michigan and Mississippi, as well as caucuses in Idaho and Hawaii.
Ted Cruz — Trump’s other top GOP rival — won the endorsement of Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Monday.
“It’s time for Republicans to join together and unite the party for the good of our state and our nation,” Bryant said.
Trump was talking up his chances Tuesday.
“We love Idaho potatoes, right?” Trump told a crowd in North Carolina as he discussed the contests ahead.
Then Trump blasted politicians in general.
“We’re dealing with dirty rotten liars. These politicians are liars. They’re dishonest people. They do commercials. They’re only good at one thing and that’s getting elected,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National Review reported Monday that four GOP senators may endorse Cruz this week — although to date, not a single one has.
Sources said neither Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has speculated on Cruz being the last chance to stop Trump, nor anti-Trump Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, were among the four.
Anti-Trump forces using millions raised through super PACs have been pounding him, especially in Florida.
“Former students say Trump University was a scam,” says the narrator in a $1 million ad funded by the Our Principles PAC. The ad quotes heavily from New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s investigation of the university.
An ad by the pro-Rubio Conservative Solutions PAC labels Trump a “con artist.”
Trump plans to spend about $2 million on Florida TV commercials and $1 million in Ohio, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media’s CMAG.
Trump’s campaign has also reserved about half a million dollars in TV time in Michigan.
Overall, Trump is on track to spend about $15 million in the primary race, CMAG says.
That’s a few million dollars less than Rubio, who has won far fewer contests than Trump, and a few million dollars more than Cruz, who so far has been Trump’s closest competitor.
