Specifically, his rivals are eager to relive Rubio’s past use of a Republican Party credit card for personal expenses back when he was the speaker of House in Florida. The total amount he charged during that duration was just more than $182,000, within which he racked up 73 personal expenses on the card that his team has said he reimbursed fully.
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As further evidence Rubio did nothing wrong or improper, the campaign pointed to a 2012 Florida Ethics Commission report that dismissed a complaint lodged against Rubio and an audit by the state party in 2010 that found his expenses were, in fact, party-related. Rubio has conceded that he did indeed use the GOP card for personal matters, but says he ultimately paid for those charges himself.
For his part, Rubio has told the press that the party “never paid a single personal expense of mine”, noting that since it was an American Express card, he was required to pay the balance of his personal charges back each month. “The Republican Party of Florida did not pay for any of Marco’s personal expenses”, the campaign said in a statement.
Here’s NY Times reporter Jonathan Martin yawning on CNN that, “if this is all they have to use against Rubio, then they’re going to have to keep looking:” What may be most interesting about the weekend’s revelation is the campaign’s strategic timing.
The campaign said that Rubio wasn’t talking about statements from those years. Well played. I’ll leave you with two tweets.
The topic of Rubio’s credit cards also was raised in his 2010 campaign for the Senate, when he ran as a tea party favorite.
“You can’t take that guy for his word”, Ingram said of Rubio. It was virtually the same explanation he’s giving today. According to the Guardian, Rubio believes his struggles with money-which include taking huge penalties for liquidating a retirement account to pay for home repairs last year-will only help him with regular Americans.
The newspaper in Florida said a few of Rubio’s statements for his credit card from the period of two-years remained private.
Rubio told Karl it was important to make the distinction between a “credit card” and a “charge card”. Mr. Rubio added of Mr. Trump: “I can’t respond to everything he says, I wouldn’t be able to run a campaign”.
Rubio had the American Express charge card for a total of four years, from January 2005 to December 2008.
“He didn’t have carte blanche, (but) he had an America Express card”, he laughed.
A page of one of the card statements released by the Rubio campaign on Saturday.
Since Rubio has begun to rise in the polls, his financial history has become an increasingly heavy target for opponents like Bush. Ted Cruz of Texas for third place behind front-runner Donald Trump and second-place Ben Carson. But it is a high-stakes test of his ability to control the story about his ability to manage money now that Rubio is on a national stage and is emerging as the establishment-friendly Republican to beat in the presidential race.
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On Wednesday, Rubio told ABC News that “his only debt in the world” is the mortgage on his home.
