Donald Trump, one of Mr. Rubio’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, talked about the Florida senator’s personal finances repeatedly this past week, saying Mr. Rubio lives “above his means” and telling one audience, “He is a disaster with his credit cards”. Rubio’s camp noted that the senator was on hand for a fund-raising event but added that he eventually paid 30 percent of that bill “to reflect … that part of his trip was personal”.
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The new records show Rubio’s spending from the two years before he became speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Charges to grocery stores, a lumber yard and an electronics store also appear of a personal nature. Nevertheless, Rubio supporters & his marketing crusade argue in that he spent considerably lower than previous Florida Home speakers & in that Rubio isn’t concealing monetary errors.
Hotel charges in Rubio’s hometown of Miami, including $308.98 from a stay in February 2007, with a $260.91 food and beverage charge. The documents reveal extensive use of the GOP account for expenses related to entertainment and travel, along with other miscellaneous charges. His campaign insists Rubio has reimbursed American Express for the purchases. The personal charges, again, were later paid to American Express, according to the campaign. On a trip to New York, Rubio charged $715 at the bargain clothes chain Syms, and later paid for it as a personal expense.
In a new WBUR poll released on Wednesday, Marco Rubio garnered 11% of support in New Hampshire, good enough for third place. “It didn’t work then and it won’t work now”.
His credit card issues were first raised during his 2010 run for the US Senate. A few of Rubio’s personal expenses wound up on that card too. Charlie Crist, with leaking the documents to the newspapers.
An outside group backing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, questioned Mr. Rubio for not releasing the missing statements.
The Washington Post fact-checker also noted that “a Florida resident filed an ethics complaint against Rubio for his airline charges, among other allegations”. In 2010, the Tampa Bay Times got its hand on two years of the GOP credit card bills-for 2006 and 2007-and what it found wasn’t exactly pretty: They showed Rubio had “routinely charged personal expenses, from a $10.50 movie ticket to a four-day, $10,000 family reunion”. The ban prevents lawmakers from taking gifts from lobbyists, but the state party doesn’t face the same restrictions. “The Republican Party of Florida didn’t pay a single one of them”. Marco Rubio let go on Saturday more of his credit card statements, in an conspicuous try and curtail continued questions & criticism about his personal finances.
The USA senator has long faced questions about his personal finances, but his recent rise in public opinion polls has renewed attention over how he has managed his money as rivals try to score points over the US economy.
It was a coup for the Rubio campaign, but Trump, who is refusing super PAC money, called politicians fueled by big donors “puppets” and linked Rubio to Singer’s ideology.
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In a report earlier this year, the Times said campaign managers for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney flagged Rubio’s spending record while vetting him as a possible vice presidential running mate.
