Rival Campaigns Pounce as Marco Rubio Cancels Second Event in 24 Hours
Marco Rubio was forced to cancel a campaign stop in Pawleys Island today.
— -- After his charter plane experienced some technical issues, presidential candidate Marco Rubio was forced to cancel a campaign stop in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, on Friday -- the second event Rubio cancelled in the past 24 hours.
His GOP presidential competitors are taking notice.
Ted Cruz's campaign was quick to comment on the cancellation, given that Rubio also had to cancel his appearance at the Conservative Convention last night.
And Jeb Bush’s communications director, Tim Miller, tweeted about Rubio’s absence at last night’s event with the hashtag #NoShowRubio.
On Friday, about 500 people had gathered at the Lowcountry Preparatory School gymnasium in Pawleys Island when the cancellation was announced shortly before noon. Attendees were first notified by email. A volunteer then took the stage to tell them Rubio’s plane was stuck in Columbia, where he had hosted another event that morning.
The Rubio campaign has now rescheduled the event in Pawleys Island for tonight.
And yesterday, Rubio’s team sent out a last-minute email to say that Rubio would not be able to make a conservative convention in Greenville because of a delay in his schedule. The campaign said Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy, two Rubio backers, would fill in for the Florida senator, but the surrogates were not allowed to take the stage.
Prominent conservative Mark Levin later mocked Rubio when he took the stage, asking Rubio to raise his hand.
“It was pretty damn rude of Rubio, quite frankly,” Levin later told Breitbart News. “It is up to him to do what he wants to do, but...we had several thousand people to hear what he wanted to say.”
In Pawleys Island, Teresa Nash said she was disappointed but understood that Rubio's absence was beyond his control.
“I’ve already voted for him,” she said. “I just wanted to meet him in person. I wanted to shake his hand.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott are also campaigning with Rubio on Friday -- the final full day of campaigning before voters go to the polls in the state’s GOP primary tomorrow.