It set the Internet ablaze in 2013 -- Marco Rubio's bout with xerostomia in his 2013 GOP response to President Obama's State of the Union address. Eleven minutes into his remarks and he made an awkward lunge for an off-camera water bottle to slake his thirst.

Social media users quickly gave the episode labels like “watergate” or “aqua lunge” or “the Big Gulp.”

Rubio even poked fun at himself afterward, immediately posting a picture of the 8-ounce Poland Spring bottle on Twitter and hoisting bottled water during network TV appearances the following morning.

“I needed water — what am I going to do? You know, it happens. God has a funny way of reminding us we’re human,” a smiling Rubio said on ABC’s "Good Morning America."

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (center) is flanked by GOP whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, as Thune speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate passed the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Credit: AP