Mitch Perry
While appearing on Fox News Wednesday morning, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio again downplayed stories that are again circling about his finances. They include his issues with a Republican Party of Florida credit card when he was speaker of the Florida house.
“It’s actually a discredited attack,” Rubio told Fox’s Martha MacCallum on Wednesday, referring to an ethics claim filed against him in 2010 when he was running for Senate and dismissed in 2012.
He offered a similar line during the GOP debate last week.
“It was a charge card, an American Express,” he said. “And it was secured under my personal credit, in conjunction with the Republican Party, and every month I would go through the bills, and if there was something on there that was personal, I paid it, directly to American Express, and if it was the party, the party paid for it.”
The story has spiked again in the political media because of Rubio’s slight rise in the polls after his performance in last week’s debate.
“For years, I’ve been hearing that his credit cards are a disaster,” Donald Trump said Tuesday during a news conference in New York City.
Tuesday night, the Tampa Bay Times’ Alex Leary reported that the Rubio campaign has promised additional financial reports on the issue will be forthcoming within the next month. Two years of records analyzed by the Times during his Senate campaign found that he “routinely” charged personal expenses on the card and sent about $16,000 to American Express to cover charges.
Rubio blames the media for creating the issue. “But it’s been been largely discredited, and we’ll address it,” he told MacCallum on Wednesday. “We have no problem addressing it. We’re running for president.”
He then segued to talking big picture.
“I think this campaign has to be about the future of America, about what kind of country we’re going to be in the 21st century. And that’s what I’m going to continue to focus my attention on.”
One of the more damning aspects of this story, which has been circulating five years, are comments by Tampa Republican strategist Chris Ingram. He has said Rubio told him he spent thousands on stone pavers at his home in Miami. In his defense, he’s said, “I pulled the wrong card from my wallet to pay for pavers.”
MacCallum then asked whether Trump has been pressed sufficiently regarding his professional bankruptcies.
“I hope he’ll continue to be asked about it, because it’s legitimate,” Rubio said, who again immediately referred back to his hardscrabble origins, talking about his student loans and how his West Miami home he purchased a decade ago has lost value.
“I think it’s good for our country, to have a president that knows what it’s like, for example, because of Fannie and Freddie, because of the Federal Reserve and its irresponsible behavior, what it’s like, despite the fact that you did nothing wrong, to see your home lose its value,” he said. “Millions of Americans have gone through that.”
He also said he could related to those who are struggling with college debt.
