The anti-Marco Rubio chorus reached a crescendo Sunday, now with a bipartisan ensemble.

Hillary Clinton called Rubio's performance in Saturday’s Republican debate “pathetic.” She was not knocking his Rubio-on-repeat response to attacks from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, but his sharp-edged assault on her record on abortion.


“It’s really quite sad to see what Sen. Rubio is becoming in this campaign,” Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Everybody understands that he is diving as far right as he possibly can.”

Her comments followed Rubio’s claim in the debate that Democrats are the "extremists" in the abortion argument, arguing Clinton supports unfettered access to abortion while he believes it should be legal only to save the life of the mother, and he would make no exceptions for rape or incest. The Florida senator now finds himself squeezed on both sides over this issue. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush argued during the debate that Rubio’s hard-right position on abortion could sink him with moderate voters who favor exceptions in difficult circumstances.

Rubio reiterated his belief Sunday but included a caveat, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that if Congress sent him an abortion crackdown that included additional exceptions, “I’ll sign it.”

The aggressive attacks on Rubio underscore the threat he poses on both sides of the aisle, a candidate who’s considered among Clinton’s most formidable challengers and also one whose stature has been rising since he surged to a strong third-place finish in Monday’s Iowa caucuses. A solid finish in New Hampshire by Rubio that bests Bush, Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich could quickly thin the field, so the hits on him have become more urgent.

Bush took to the morning shows Sunday to continue what Christie started in the debate: the emerging narrative that Rubio is too scripted on the campaign trail, hewing to talking points — a claim Rubio played into when, under pressure from Christie about his experience, he repeated the same line nearly verbatim in the span of minutes.

“He's so scripted; he's so gifted. He's a great speaker, but he came across as totally scripted and kind of robotic,” Bush said on "Fox News Sunday."

Christie, whose disassembling of Rubio became the night's most memorable moment, quickly sought to parlay his strong performance in the debate into a new narrative: The New Hampshire contest is now wide open and could have room for four or five winners to move on. "There was a march among some of the chattering class to anoint Sen. Rubio," Christie said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I think after last night, that's over."

Rubio showed that the withering criticism and near-universal agreement about his performance wouldn’t necessarily shake his message: that President Barack Obama isn’t incompetent but is unsettlingly effective at implementing an agenda that weakens America.

“It’s what I believe, and it’s what I’m going to continue to say,” Rubio argued on ABC’s “This Week,” noting that his campaign raised more money in the first hour of the debate than in any previous debate. “It happens to be one of the main reasons I’m running.”

For her part, Clinton also displayed an even more energetic rejection of her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders’ concern that she’s accepted too much money from Wall Street interests in campaign contributions and as a paid speaker.

“They have been quite artful at raising questions and trying to cast doubts about my record. I’m really not gonna sit here and take it anymore,” Clinton said on ABC. The former secretary of state also said she’d mulled over requests to release the transcripts of her closed-door speeches to financial firms — and she said she’d do it under one, unlikely, condition.

“These rules need to apply to everybody, including my opponent, who’s given speeches to groups, people on the other side who’ve given speeches to groups,” she said. “If this is going to be a new standard … let it apply to everybody.”

Sanders, who appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said the decision to release Clinton’s speeches is “ultimately her decision. But I think it would be a positive thing for the American people to know what was said behind closed doors to Wall Street,” he said.

The Vermont senator also lampooned her critique of him as ill-prepared to handle foreign policy, noting that she lodged the same attack against Barack Obama in 2008.

“It turned out not to be true. I’m impressed by the quality of [Obama's] foreign policy,” Sanders said, adding that he doesn’t accept the “media narrative” that he’s not as confident on foreign policy. “I will assemble a top-notch foreign policy team.”

Sanders said he won’t impugn Clinton’s integrity despite her acceptance of Wall Street donations, but he rejected her argument that she hasn’t been influenced by it.

“There’s never been a politician in history who said ‘that money influences me,'” he said. “It’s just, you know, people are throwing millions and millions of dollars into the campaign, but there’s no reason why they’re throwing that money into the campaign. I think, you know, the American people know better."

Donald Trump, whose enormous polling lead in New Hampshire has largely held despite a second-place finish in Iowa, has largely stayed out of the squabbling for position beneath him. On ABC, he nicked Iowa winner Ted Cruz for giving a “tentative” answer about whether he’d reintroduce enhanced interrogation tactics, and he gave a rambling answer on the type of judges he’d appoint, when asked whether he’d try to get them to overturn gay marriage.

“I would prefer that they stand against. But we’ll see what happens. It depends on the judge,” he said.

Cruz laid low, skipping the Sunday shows and spending the morning in church 15 minutes outside of Manchester, shaking hands and speaking with veterans and students. After speaking with an usher, who greeted Cruz as “President,” The Texas senator stood by himself for a few minutes inside the sanctuary before his wife, Heidi, joined him. He kissed her on the head and stood for much of the service with his arm around her.

The pastor who introduced Cruz noted that the church can't endorse, but he personally did, and he went on to stress to the crowd the importance of getting out the Christian vote.

Meanwhile, Ben Carson, whose chances of winning the nomination have dwindled but who still captures support from some evangelical voters, continued to portray Cruz as emblematic of a corrupt Washington culture. His campaign has been leveling harsh hits on Cruz over the Texas senator's role in an attempt by his campaign to convince Iowa voters that Carson was dropping out of the race — just as the votes were getting underway in Iowa on Monday. Cruz, who's blamed CNN's reporting for fueling the rumor, was greeted Saturday night by a harsh statement from the cable network, which said he "knowingly misstated" the network's role in the episode during Saturday's debate.

"What has to be looked at is what does this tell you about a person if they will allow a campaign in which people clearly do things that are underhanded — and if you accept that, what does that say that you will do as president?" Carson mused on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "I think it should be a moment of enlightenment."

Katie Glueck contributed to this report.