Marco Rubio seems to have a thing for local breweries and drawing large crowds at the last minute. His Iowa campaign team organized a meet and greet at Firetrucker Brewery in Ankeny in less than 24 hours, and about 200 people showed up on Friday night to hear him speak.

The Florida senator began his speech by saying the Republican party needed “a new face” and that the GOP continues to put up a mediocre candidate “time and time again.” Rubio called for new leadership.

“I can’t remember a time in my lifetime when we have been more out of touch than what’s happening in Washington right now,” said Rubio. “And I wish I could tell you it’s one political party, but it’s both political parties. It’s the same thing every four years, every two years, they always say we need to come out for someone and step aside. We can’t keep doing that as a party, and quite frankly, we can’t keep doing that as a country. The time has come for us to elevate a new generation of leaders and ideas.”

Rubio talked quite a bit about fixing the national debt crisis, calling it “un-American” to leave more than $19 trillion to the next generations.

“Americans just don’t care,” said Rubio. “They think it’s a problem for another day.”

The Republican also added that he is not happy with the current state of the military, pointing out that we are behind China, Russia, and North Korea.

“It’s pure lunacy,” said Rubio. “We have the smallest, oldest Navy in our history. Our army is about to cut 40,000 positions. This is a great country, but we are on the road to a decline. If we keep doing the things we are doing now, we are going to be ashamed of ourselves down the road.”

Rubio’s speech was shorter than his normal stump appearances, but it was also more poignant and spirited than previous times on the podium. Rubio has not visited Iowa since the Iowa State Fair, where a few of his events were unfortunately rained on. Rubio will be among the 11 GOP presidential candidates on stage at the next CNN-sponsored national debate. next week.