Eight of the charges, or about $7,200 worth, were personal. It was granted to him by the state Republican Party to pay for recruiting candidates, raising campaign donations and other expenses related to his political work.
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The senator announced that he would be releasing his records from the credit cards soon and likely within the next few weeks.
A similar story played out on Friday when the Virginia-based publication Politico published a report alleging Ben Carson “fabricated” a story he often tells about receiving a “full scholarship” to West Point.
“When Donald comes across a poll he doesn’t like, he gets weird and he does these sorts of unusual things and that’s fine – that’s the sort of campaign he wants to run and he’s entitled to it”, Mr. Rubio said at a news conference Wednesday in Goffstown, N.H.
He wrote that his lack of skills in bookkeeping came back to haunt him, referring to the efforts by his opponent Charlie Crist in the Senate race of 2010 to make a big issue of the expenses. “And it is not an (Republican Party of Florida) card, it is my card opened under the corporate division of AMEX using my personal credit”, Rubio said. He spent far less in those years than he did as speaker, when he took on broader responsibilities as a party leader.
That left Rubio later having to re-explain his handling of the card.
His use of an American Express card is part of a litany of financial problems – from a bank moving to foreclose on a house he co-owned in Tallahassee to questionable accounting of political funds – that have dogged Rubio during his political career. This was paid to American Express on November 15, 2005. (The party agreed to cover half of his insurance deductible, according to the Herald and Times report.) The meals he charged to the party card especially came under scrutiny, as Rubio received a $126 per diem given to state legislators to help cover food and lodging. Rubio also relied on the party card of his political adviser, Richard Corcoran, to pay for many of his political expenses.
So did Rubio purposefully change personal items to his corporate card or were they accidental charges?
In all, Rubio had the card for about four years, until December 2008.
But the documents actually reveal significantly more spending that Rubio previously represented.
“I think they’re going to slug it out for a while”, Cruz said, predicting a battle between Rubio, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and others.
The 2005-06 charges ranged from small to large.
In Miami, where Rubio lives with his wife and two children, the senator spent $308.98 at the Conrad Hotel Atrio in February 2007. “These statements are greater than 10 years of time of time old”. Rubio argues that the card was mistakenly used, and he paid back the credit card company directly for personal expenses purchased on the card.
While Rubio was Speaker of the House in Florida, he used a charge card issued by the state Republican Party for personal expenses.
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But a 2010 independent audit of the card scandal commissioned by the party pointed to an RPOF “Employee Policies & Procedures Manual” that stated the cards were “for RPOF business use only”.
