Rubio Robot

About

Rubio Robot, also referred to as Robot Rubio, is a nickname given to referring to the machine-like, memorized quality of Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio's debate performances and campaign appearances.

Origin

During his campaign, Rubio had been criticized for sounding scripted before, and in fact the first instance of the hashtag #RobotRubio being in use dates back to August 2015, shortly after he launched his presidential run.^[1] However, on February 6th, 2016, Marco Rubio appeared at a GOP debate in New Hampshire, along with the other contenders, including Donald Trump and Governor Chris Christie] The day before the debate, Christie's campaign released a series of YouTube videos documenting Rubio's practiced repetitions, and during the debate, Christie accused Rubio of memorizing 25-second soundbites and delivering them repeatedly. Rubio, visibly flustered, then proceeded to repeat the same line of his answer four times.

8:30 pm: "And let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing."

8:32 pm: "Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing."

8:34 pm: "This notion that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing is just not true. He knows exactly what he's doing."

9:21 pm: "I think anyone who believes that Barack Obama isn't doing what he's doing on purpose doesn't understand what we're dealing with here. Okay?"^[3]

Spread

After the appearance, the #RobotRubio hashtag immediately began attracting more attention, especially among Christie supporters.^[4] The Twitter account @RubioGlitch was created and first tweeted Rubio's above line at 9:43pm, near the end of the debate; the initial tweet received 332 retweets and 307 likes. The account quickly accumulated almost 4,000 followers in the following 3 days, although it only tweeted the same text repeatedly.^[6]

The theme of Marco Rubio's robotics spread offline as well, with the candidate being met at several campaign stops in New Hampshire before the February 9th primary by men dressed in robot costumes. On the one occasion, one of the men had labeled his costume the "Rubio Talking Points 3000" (below, left); on another occasion, a man dressed in a silver costume was physically pushed away by Rubio supporters who were not interested in the robot-themed disruption (below, right).^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References