Mitch Perry
Last Saturday as promised, Marco Rubio released American Express statements from 2005 and 2006, responding to questions about his use of that card that belonged to the Republican Party of Florida, saying that only eight of the charges were for personal expenses and that he had paid them off personally.
The controversy has dogged Rubio on and off for the past five years since stories first surfaced about his spending with an AmEx card during his run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. Rubio used his card nearly 500 times between January 2005 and November 2006, spending almost $65,000, according to the campaign. It described eight of those charges, totaling $7,244, as used for personal expenses.
Several news reports stated that in releasing the statements, the Rubio campaign had effectively responded to the controversy and that the story was now dead.
Chris Ingram disagrees.
Ingram is a former Republican Party political consultant who now does political analysis for Bay News 9 in Tampa Bay and writes a weekly opinion column in the Tampa Tribune. He’s been frequently quoted about Rubio’s personal expenses over the years because he spent some time with the now aspiring presidential candidate as an unpaid consultant during his Senate run and learned about some of the issues with the AmEx card at that time.
Speaking on WMNF 88.5 radio in Tampa with this reporter Thursday, Ingram conceded that it looks like Rubio has effectively quieted the growing media scrutiny into his financial background with the RPOF. But personally, he’s not satisfied at all that the Florida Senator has responded to all of the unanswered questions
“No one in the media has shown me he provided complete detailed summaries, not just summaries, but the actual statements that he got from American Express,” he says.
Ingram says it appears that Rubio was the sole person in determining whether or not each expense was a personal purchase or political one and says that Rubio has failed to provide any evidence that shows that whatever he charged for personally has actually been paid for by his own personal funds. “That has not been done, and until such time that that has been done, I for one, will not be satisfied that Marco Rubio is being honest about this,” he said.
One of the most egregious uses of the AmEx card was a $10,000 expenditure for a four-day family reunion at Melhana Plantation, an antebellum resort in Georgia. Rubio has said that the charge was a mistake by a travel agent and said he mailed a check directly to American Express to pay for it.
Ingram isn’t buying it.
“The Rubio family spent three days in a number of different rooms and spent $10,000 at this resort, and we’re supposed to believe that none of them had the wherewithal to wonder why, when they checked in, and certainly when they checked out and had that little piece of paper under their door in their hotel room, and didn’t produce any type of paper for their rooms?” he asks. “So either these people are so unsophisticated that they’ve never stayed in a hotel room before that they don’t know they’re supposed to pay for said room, or Marco told them, ‘Hey guys, I got you covered with my RPOF credit card.’ Right?” he asked.
“That would logically be what happened. Why would Marco say that he was embarrassed when he got caught, had to go back to his family members and collect $500 from each of them to pay for their room. Well, you would only be embarrassed if you previously told them, ‘I got you covered.'”
“I understand this issue very well, probably more than most people who have researched this,” Ingram continued. “But I’m always perplexed by the fact that the media hasn’t asked those questions. Like, are you kidding me, dude? Are we supposed to believe that your family has never stayed in a hotel room and they didn’t know better and they needed to pay for their room, or is there something more to this story, your family isn’t stupid, they’re actually really smart? But you told them they didn’t have to pay. We all know that’s what happened.”
The Rubio campaign did not respond for comment. For years, however, they’ve disparaged Ingram when asked about his remarks.
“None of it is even worth me or anyone from our campaign commenting about because this is a guy who is clearly disgruntled, who has a history of making accusations like this against people he’s worked for,” Rubio senior adviser Todd Harris told the Tampa Bay Times in 2010.
