CLEVELAND— “Here’s the truth,” Marco Rubio told roughly 400 cheering supporters inside a bar here. “I know there’s a debate tomorrow.”
“I came in early today,” the Florida Republican explained, “trying to convince LeBron James to come back to Miami.”
After loud but playful boos from Cavaliers fans, a smiling Rubio told the crowd: “Don’t worry. It didn’t work. It didn’t work.”
Inside this wood-paneled and exposed brick bar packed-full of young conservatives on Wednesday evening, Rubio held a pre-debate rally to fire up supporters ahead of Thursday’s televised showdown with the Republicans running for president.
Inside the TownHall bar, Rubio was introduced by Josh Mandel, the 37-year-old treasurer of Ohio. Mandel talked of watching Rubio speak at a past Ohio event.
“I heard some commotion in the back of the room,” Mandel recalled. “And filing into the back of the room were people from the kitchen who were washing the dishes, folks from upstairs who were changing the sheets, janitors who were cleaning the floors — coming into see someone that inspires them… I’ve never seen it before.”
During his remarks, Rubio singled out the Obama administration’s recently proposed EPA rule to combat global warming.
“It’s not going to do anything for the environment,” Rubio told the crowd. “The world’s not going to get any cooler; the seas aren’t going to get any lower; it will do nothing for the environment. But here’s what it will do: It will increase the cost of living in this country.”
“If a single mother trying to raise her children in Cleveland, Ohio or Miami, Florida or anywhere else in this country sees that her bills go up by 50 dollars a month, that’s devastating,” Rubio said. “You know what that means? 50 dollars a month. That means the kids don’t get new shoes this month.”
Before wrapping up his stump speech, Rubio got in another sports crack.
After someone in the crowd yelled “you’re a patriot,” Rubio thanked the supporter but then said: “I’m actually a Dolphins fan, but I don’t want to get into that.”
“As you can imagine, my anti-Tom Brady position is not helping in New Hampshire,” Rubio said to laughter.