SAVANNAH GUTHRIE (CO-HOST): You said last night to your supporters that you were disappointed. You were very straightforward about it. You said the loss is not on them, it's on you. And it strikes me that this was really the first time you owned up to Saturday night's debate being not a great performance for you and having an effect. Do you think you should have said something like that sooner, been more authentic about it and maybe that would have salvaged the moment?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Yeah, that's not the right analysis of it because, look, the debate is the debate and I don't think the people at home analyze it the same way as the media. The problem is that 72 hours later, the media fixated on that and that's what happens in these campaigns. And so the last thing people heard about our campaign in many cases was something bad happened on Saturday night with Marco Rubio. And when you look at the margins between third place and fifth place, just a couple thousand votes, that's enough in an election like this to make a difference. So I wanted my supporters to know they ran a great campaign. They worked hard. They did everything they needed to do. To the extent we finished shorter than what we wanted to, it was because of me. And something that's never going to happen again. We have eight debates in this campaign so far. I've done great in all of it but about a minute and a half, you know, 90 seconds worth of it. That will never happen again. This election's too important. It's not just about winning the election. It's about what's at stake here. And I think in the months and weeks to come, you're not going to see anyone work harder or more passionately, not just to win an election but to turn the country around.

MATT LAUER (CO-HOST): Senator, you say it will never happen again. And what that leads me to believe is that you feel it was just a bad performance. Yet, a lot of political analysts are saying it was something more serious, that it was exposing a major flaw in you as a candidate, and they translate that to a lack of depth. How do you answer that?

RUBIO: Well, that's absurd because the truth of the matter is that if you look at this race, no one in this race, for example, has shown greater depth, knowledge, understanding, or better judgment on the foreign policy issues than I have. And the fact of the matter is, that debate was two hours and 15 minutes long. I got asked a host of questions on complex things. And I answered every single one of those questions with as much or more depth than anyone else in the race. So, I'm not worried about that part, because I think both our record on those issues are clear and moving forward we're going to make it clear. There is not an issue before this country that I cannot discuss in depth with anyone in this race. And by the way, when it comes to foreign policy and national security, I have more experience and have done more work than all the other candidates remaining in the Republican side combined. So I look forward to that conversation as well as we head into South Carolina.

GUTHRIE: And how do you combat that perception that takes hold that, you know, you are somebody that spouts off talking points, or as one person said it from another campaign, that you're a mile wide but an inch deep?

RUBIO: Well, I'm on the air with you right now. You can ask me any question you want on any policy issue that you would like and we can discuss those in depth. I don't know what you're going to ask me. I do this every day. So, I don't think that's the narrative that's taking hold. I think the narrative that night was, we had a bad debate. People heard about it on the news. And where it really hurts is you can't get any other message out, because all they want to ask you about is the debate that night. So that's on me. It's not going to happen again. But we're going to get back to the fundamentals of what made us successful in the past. And we're going to be the nominee, it's just going to take a little longer. But we're going to get there.

Previously:

Marco Rubio Touts Rush Limbaugh's Defense Of His Recycled Lines At GOP Debate

“Marcobot”: Media Rail Against Marco Rubio After His “Disastrous” Debate Gaffe

Marco Rubio's “Memorized 25-Second Speech” Comes Straight From Glenn Beck