Marco Rubio on Wednesday pledged to disclose new spending records from that account as he sought to inoculate himself against what could be his biggest liability as a presidential candidate: how he manages his finances. In any case, Marco Rubio ability to withstand the glare for sure in trouble.
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Mr. Rubio has had a considerable measure going for him in this way. How come he’s suddenly scrapping with Trump after ignoring him for most of the campaign, having presumably learned the lesson that candidates who engage with Trump tend to fade? Also, he’s pulled in the basic eye of the NY Times, which in a Republican designating fight is superior to any support. The scrutiny also provoked renewed criticism of Mr. Rubio’s personal finances.
Marco Rubio on Saturday released two years of previously undisclosed statements for a Republican Party of Florida American Express card, detailing about $7,200 in personal expenses he says he paid back.
Rubio was asked about the card earlier, on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Rubio, a former speaker of the Florida House, had the party-issued card from February 2005 to November 2008.
Rubio’s personal finances have become an issue in the campaign, with rivals accusing the senator of spending lavishly and lavishly – and using it for personal business. “I’m in Florida all the time, and for years I’ve been hearing that his credit cards are a disaster”.
Why release the records now?
Those charges, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reviewed the available records in 2010, ranged from meals and beverages to “supplies” at the local Apple store and a lumber company. For other charges, it was a mistaken use of the wrong credit card in his wallet, for which he would eventually reimburse the party.
“When the statements were later leaked during my Senate campaign, they invited press skepticism, confused a few of the public and allowed an opponent to suggest the party had paid for personal expenses”, he wrote.
Rubio, for example, charged more than $5,000 during his seven-night stay at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas in August 2005.
“Each time, I identified the charges and paid the costs myself, directly to American Express”, he said in the book.
A release from the Rubio campaign said that, first as speaker designate and then speaker, “he led the Florida House’s Republican campaign operation (the equivalent of the National Republican Congressional Committee), which included an aggressive travel and fundraising schedule”.
“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. ‘The Republican Party of Florida did not pay for any of Marco’s personal expenses.
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In addition to Ballard, Politico quoted a number of Bush supporters expressing unease with Bush’s recent criticism of Rubio’s missed votes in the Senate and lack of experience, which Bush raised in last month’s debate. And the campaign of Rubio rival and longtime friend Jeb Bush recently gave a presentation to donors in which it called the senator “a risky bet” and accused him of, among other transgressions, “misuse of state party credit cards”. Rubio has repeatedly contended that he paid the party back every month for any personal expenses he put on the party American Express card, but records show Rubio did not make monthly payments, including any repayments during a six-month stretch in 2007.
