At the last Republican debate,  New Jersey governor called out Marco Rubio for repeatedly bringing up a rehearsed point about Barack Obama knowingly doing damage to the country. Today, on the day of the primary, the Rubio campaign is speaking out.

Speaking exclusively to EIASC, Rubio’s chief robotics engineer Doctor Thomas Emery addressed the behavior as a glitch in the senator’s vocal processors.

“When interrupted or distracted, the automaton’s vocal processors will try to go into an automatic mode, bringing about the repetition of one of many pre-recorded phrases.” Doctor Emery explained, “In some rare instances, it will continue to repeat the phrase. He’s been intermittently reactivating himself and sputtering it in the middle of the night. We should have it fixed by South Carolina!”

Despite making history as the first robot to run for a presidential nomination, Rubio has faced an uphill battle vying against his human opponents. For their part, the G.O.P. made his creators swear not to activate his weapons systems.