Marco Rubio is taking aim at Jeb Bush in a new TV ad released Friday that calls his presidential rival “desperate.”
“Jeb Bush is desperate and spending millions on false attacks. Don’t fall for it,” the Florida senator says in the ad, titled “Happening,” speaking directly to the camera.
“When I’m president, there will be no amnesty. I’ll cancel Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders, cut sanctuary city funding, and deport criminal aliens,” Rubio adds.
{mosads}Rubio also vowed to beef up border security, including adding 20,000 more border agents and completing the wall at the U.S. southwestern border with Mexico.
“If we aren’t 100 percent sure who you are and why you’re coming to America, you’re not getting in,” he says.
Rubio has been under fire from GOP rivals for helping draft a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013.
In a second Rubio TV ad released Friday, titled “Support,” a woman talks about her brother who was killed while protecting the border and says Rubio would be the best candidate to protect the country.
“For me, this is personal. This is about protecting America and everyone who fights for it,” Kerry Terry-Willis says.
“From the border to the battlefield, I know Marco Rubio will give people like my brother the support they need.”
Both ads come a day after the GOP presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C., where Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sparred again over immigration. Cruz has accused Rubio of supporting amnesty, a charge the Florida senator denies.
Rubio sits in third place in both national and Iowa polls, but fares better in New Hampshire, where he’s in second place less than a month ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary state, according to RealClearPolitics average of polls.