Marco Rubio's Remarks to Supporters Following New Hampshire Primary

Marco Rubio's Remarks to Supporters Following New Hampshire Primary

"I want you to understand something. Our disappointment tonight is not on you, it's on me. It is on me. I did not do well on Saturday night -- listen to this: that will never happen again. That will never happen again. Let me tell you why it will never happen again. It’s not about me, it’s not about this campaign, it is about this election. It’s about what’s at stake in this election."
- Marco Rubio
 
Transcript...
MARCO: Thank you so much. Thank you. So about forty minutes ago, I called Donald Trump. I congratulated him on a big win for him. He deserves congratulations. He worked very hard and they did very well. No, no, no -- He worked very hard and he earned this victory and I congratulated him on that.

And I want to thank all of you. I know you worked very hard. Our team here in New Hampshire did a phenomenal job. You worked incredibly hard and I am grateful to you.

We are still watching these numbers, we will see where it winds up, but I can just tell you I know many people are disappointed. I am disappointed with tonight.

I want you to understand. But I want you to understand something. I want you to understand something. Our disappointment tonight is not on you, it's on me. It is on me. I did not do well on Saturday night -- listen to this: that will never happen again. That will never happen again.

Let me tell you why it will never happen again. It’s not about me, it’s not about this campaign, it is about this election. It’s about what’s at stake in this election. You see for the last seven years we have a president that’s been doing tremendous damage to this country – tremendous damage. We have a president who is trying to redefine the relationship between government and our economy. Taking over our healthcare system. Every solution to every problem is a tax increase.
 
We have a president that is doing damage and undermining the constitution, waging war on the Second Amendment, undermining religious liberties. We have a president that is doing damage to America's standing in the world. A president who views us as an arrogant country that needed to be cut down to size, so he guts our military and betrays our allies. And in this election, what we have to decide is are we going to keep doing this. Because we will keep doing this if Hillary Clinton is elected. This is what will continue to happen if Bernie Sanders is elected. If they win, all of the damage Barack Obama has done to America, it becomes permanent. That's why they cannot win. That's why they cannot win this election. That's why we must win this election, and we will win this election.

(Applause)
We will win this election.
(Applause)
We will win this election and we must win this election.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You're number one with us Marco!
MARCO: Thank you.
(Applause)

We must win this election because if we don't win this election, we may lose our country. If we don't win this election, my children and yours will not inherit the greatest nation in the history of the world, which is what our parents and our grandparents left for us. So tonight, we did not wind up where we wanted to be, but that does not change where we're going to wind up at the end of this process.

(Applause)
And it is on nights like tonight, and on moments such as these, that I am reminded that my family has faced great challenge their entire lives. I remember one story in particular, when I was young - must have been seven going on eight, and my father lost his job. He was a manager at an apartment building, and some new people bought the building, and within 48 hours they had changed the locks, they told us we had to move out. I'll never forget, I was a young child, but I remember my parents scrambling to get a moving truck, get all our furniture loaded in there as quickly as possible, because on Monday we needed to find a new house and my father needed to find a new job.

And it was hard because most of his life he had been a bartender here in the U.S. He had been an apartment manager for about a year and a half, and then he couldn't find bartending work on Miami Beach. My father in January 1979 left to Las Vegas by himself, leaving his children and his wife in Miami to go look for a job. Now he had worked for 20 years as a bartender, and when he got to Las Vegas the only jobs he could find was a busboy. After 20 years of working as a bartender this gentleman - already well into his fifties - was carrying buckets of ice and cleaning glasses for bartenders half his age and not even a tenth of their experience. It was a very humbling experience. It was hard. But he was not prideful. He understood that it wasn't about him, it was about us. My father, more than halfway into his life, was willing to do whatever it took, so that our future could be better.

Well that's the challenge before our country now. Not all the days are going to be great days, we're not always going to get things the way we want, but in the end I am confident that not only will this campaign be successful, but America will be successful as well.

I am confident that when this process is done, this nation will discover and re-embrace the principles that made her great. I am confident --
(Applause)
I am confident because for over two centuries, because for over two centuries Americans in the end, have always gotten it right.
 
In each generation, in each generation before us, Americans have always done what needed to be done and I know with all my heart that we will do what needs to be done in this generation.
 
To leave for our children what they deserve to inherit. A New American Century, the greatest nation on earth, that is what we will do in this election.

(Applause)
So, New Hampshire, I thank you for welcoming us. I thank you for the snow, my kids had a great time. I thank you for your votes. I thank you for the hours you gave us on the phones and the doors that you knocked. I thank you. You will see us again because we're coming back in November to win the general election. And New England, New England, New England, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, we'll see you in a few weeks. We are going to come and win. And South Carolina, we are on the way! Thank you and God bless you.
(Applause)
Thank you.