A Marcobot Speaks

On Tuesday, as Granite Staters brushed the snow off their cars and headed to the polls, a disturbance rippled across the world of New Hampshire politics. Two guys in cardboard boxes with colanders on their heads showed up at a Marco Rubio rally: “Rubio Robots,” sent to troll the establishment-friendly Florida senator for robotically short-circuiting during Saturday’s GOP debate. The robots—employees of the liberal super-PAC American Bridge—quickly went viral on social media when angry Rubio supporters roughed them up and video of the encounter rocketed across Twitter. By Tuesday afternoon, the robots (“Marco Roboto” and “Rubio Talking Point 3000”) were so famous that tourists in Manchester were stopping reporters on the street to inquire about the whereabouts in hopes of snapping a picture.

On Tuesday evening, as the returns came in and cinched Rubio’s collapse, I spoke with one of the Rubiobots, Eddie Vale, 35, who was already on the ground in South Carolina preparing to troll Rubio at his noon event. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of what he had to say: