Marco Rubio heckled in Orlando on immigration

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is glad that the August recess is now over. He desperately wants to get back to Washington, D.C. so he can avoid talking about his support for the 1,200 page immigration bill which passed the US Senate. He would love to change the subject to war with Syria than his support for amnesty.

He almost got out of Florida unscathed that is until he spoke at the Americans For Prosperity (AFP) Defending the American Dream Summit in Orlando, FL the past weekend. His speech was about defunding Obamacare and the national debt. But some in the audience did not let him off the hook on immigration. Multiple times during his prepared remarks he was heckled about immigration.

Watch Senator Rubio’s presentation at the AFP summit and listen for the cat calls:

Senator Rubio seemed to be off his game. He read his speech and did not seem on message or have his heart into it. After Rubio spoke Texas Governor Rick Perry took the stage and gave a backhanded slap to Rubio, who may be a rival for the Republican nomination for President in 2016, when he said America must “secure our borders first”. Governor Perry wowed the AFP crowd of over 1,000 with his remarks about the Tenth Amendment. Listen to Governor Perry’s remarks:

Matea Gold from the Washington Post reported, “Speaking Friday at the opening session of the “Defending the American Dream Summit” sponsored by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the senator was interrupted repeatedly by calls of “No amnesty!” from attendees scattered throughout the 1,000-person audience.”

“I’d like to see Marco Rubio, just so I can tell him what I think of his positions: He’s on the wrong track of being a conservative,” Rick Barr, a 60-year-old activist from Indianapolis, said before his speech.

Some said Rubio needed to address the topic head-on  to win over skeptics, wrote Gold.

“We’re all a little irritated with Marco,” said Judy Peterson, a retired special education teacher from Treasure Island, Fla. “Now, that doesn’t mean we’ve thrown him under the bus. But we would like him to, just come on. He hasn’t explained it very well.”