During an interview with MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Thursday, Rick Santorum couldn't name an accomplishment of Marco Rubio. Santorum endorsed Rubio on Wednesday. Santorum can't name any of Rubio's Senate accomplishments

Rick Santorum had one job to do in his appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday. He failed.

The former Pennsylvania senator, who dropped his presidential bid Wednesday, told co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski he is supporting Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign because the Florida senator is someone “who can work together with people.” But Santorum struggled to name one accomplishment Rubio has had in the Senate.


“He’s been in the Senate for four years,” Scarborough noted. “Can you name his top accomplishment in the Senate — actually working in the Senate doing something that tilted your decision to Marco Rubio?”

“If you look at being in the minority in the United States Senate in a year when nothing got — four years where nothing got done, I guess it’s hard to say there are accomplishments,” Santorum said. “I mean, tell me what happened during that four years that was an accomplishment for anybody? It was complete gridlock.”

Scarborough shot back that Republicans have been in the majority for the past two years and asked what Rubio has accomplished there since being part of the majority. “Joe, look, the Republicans have been in the majority for one year and one month, of which, as you know, he was running for president primarily,” Santorum said. “The first four years he was in the minority, and nothing got done. And by the way, what happened this year under the Republicans?”

Scarborough insisted he wasn’t defending Congress or being difficult in his questioning. “I’m just asking you to name one accomplishment that Marco Rubio —” Scarborough said as Santorum tried to interrupt. “But list one accomplishment. Just one. Just one that Marco achieved. Maybe a bill that he wrote. Maybe a moment in a committee.”

Brzezinski then jumped in to make it easier on Santorum, offering a fill-in-the-blank question. “Jeb Bush ran Florida. Donald Trump built a company,” she began. “Marco Rubio... — finish the sentence.”

“OK, Marco Rubio was, No. 1, the speaker of the Florida House, which is not something that’s a minor deal,” Santorum answered. “I mean, he was elected by his colleagues to be the speaker of the House. No. 2, yeah, he spent four years in the United States Senate being frustrated like everybody else that nothing got done, and then you can’t point to him and say well nothing got done and therefore he has no accomplishments.”

That argument is “bogus,” Santorum said, slamming the “feckless Congress.”

“It’s actually not a bogus argument,” Scarborough said. “All I’m asking is a simple question. I’ll ask it one more time, and don’t attack me because we’ve been friends for a very long time.”

“No, no, no, let me ask the question one more time,” Scarborough said as Santorum tried to interrupt. “List one accomplishment that Marco Rubio has achieved in four years in the United States Senate. It doesn’t even have to be a passed bill.”

“Well, I know he included something that went after the insurance companies in the most recent omnibus. I know that he fought for that to stop bailing out insurance companies,” Santorum said. “That’s one thing that I’m familiar with that I just saw recently, but — and again, he was on the campaign trail and accomplished that. The bottom line is there isn’t a whole lot of accomplishments, Joe, and I just don’t think it’s a fair question.”

Since the 2010 elections, when Scarborough appeared to back Rubio’s opponent, Charlie Crist, relations have been frosty. Rubio has refused to go on the show, and Scarborough frequently bashes Rubio on air. A source familiar with Thursday’s appearance said Santorum would have been dissuaded from appearing had upper-level campaign staff known about it.

“He took a s---,” one Rubio insider said of Santorum’s appearance.

Rubio defended Santorum later Thursday, emphasizing that the former Pennsylvania senator had endorsed him only a day ago. “Rick just signed onto the campaign, so obviously he's working with us and, you know, we'll have to continue to work on telling our story,” Rubio said on Fox News. “And obviously Rick’s going to be a big part of doing that. I'm proud of what I've done in public service.”

Eliza Collins and Marc Caputo contributed to this report.