GOP strategist Mark Corallo says short of Rubio spending the party’s money on luxuries, or worse, not repaying it, he doesn’t think the voters will care much. Rubio paid American Categorical directly for these personal charges, the marketing crusade stated in a press release. He described an investment banker he met in San Francisco who is working with researchers on a novel drug to fight cancer. Many of us who went to college graduated with thousands of dollars of student loan debt.
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As Marco Rubio’s polling numbers in the race for the GOP presidential nomination creep towards the realm of the party’s other formidable contenders, questions regarding the Florida senator’s finances are providing an unwelcome distraction to his campaign.
During last month’s heavily criticized CNBC debate, moderator Becky Quick asked Rubio if his dubious bookkeeping skills – intermingling campaign money with personal money, facing foreclosure on a second home, and liquidating a $68,000 retirement fund – suggest he lacks the requisite maturity and wisdom to lead the U.S.’s $17 trillion economy.
The statements also showed he made eight personal purchases on a party American Express charge card which totaled $7,200 – the charges scrutinized by Trump.
The disclosures appear to show Mr. Rubio paying American Express whenever he used the card for personal reasons.
In 2012, the Florida state ethics commission dismissed a complaint against him for the spending, though an inspector analyzing the claims noted that Rubio was not without a few fault.
The new statements for Rubio’s Republican Party of Florida American Express card cover the period from January 2005 to October 2006. “I don’t think we can immediately revoke that”, Rubio told Univision’s Jorge Ramos.
Questions over the personal charges first emerged in 2010 during his successful U.S. Senate campaign. All were repaid by Rubio and not the party, according to the campaign, though it is impossible to corroborate that from the AmEx statements because they don’t specify who made the payments.
“Marco could certainly come up with them – he’s acknowledged to me that he has the records”, Ingram said.
So if you want to focus on Rubio’s credit card shenanigans and his past life as a small-time charlatan, go right ahead. It was virtually the same explanation he’s giving today.
“If there was a personal expense, I paid it”, Rubio said. Despite years of requests, Rubio still hasn’t released records from his earlier use of the card, the Times reports.
That doesn’t mean that Rubio should ignore his critics, says Craig Shirley, conservative strategist and Reagan biographer. It was American Express. (Corcoran, the incoming Florida House speaker, is backing Jeb Bush for president).
The Florida Republican delivered his strongest retort to Trump to date Thursday morning in New Hampshire as he filed for the primary, calling it “ironic” that Trump is attacking his financial history.
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During his 2010 campaign, Rubio’s aides said the charges were legitimate, contending that the minivan had been damaged while being used on GOP business. “It was an attack leveled against me by Charlie Christ and it’s an attack that’s been debunked”.
