As we have stated previously, no-one has ever fully vetted Marco Rubio; which is a problem for the GOPe supporters. Apparently the media are now taking an additional interest. His finances are the least of his historical issues.
FLORIDA – […] Sen. Rubio’s past is under fresh scrutiny as he emerges as a top presidential prospect. During last week’s debate, he deflected questions about his financial discipline — most recently, he liquidated a retirement account — but those questions will only intensify.
“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.
The Tampa Bay Times asked Rubio’s team for the records in June and again in early October.
A top strategist, Todd Harris, said Tuesday they would be released soon, possibly within the month, but declined to answer questions about what they might contain.
As speaker of the Florida House, Rubio was one of about a half-dozen lawmakers given Republican Party of Florida credit cards. During the Senate race, the Times/Herald obtained Rubio’s statements from 2006 and 2007, showing he routinely charged personal expenses, from a $10.50 movie ticket to a four-day, $10,000 family reunion.
[…] “Those credit card statements are an internal party matter. I’m not going to release them,” he told the editorial board of the Times-Union of Jacksonville in September 2010.
Attempts by reporters and Rubio’s rivals to obtain them have fallen flat, leading to speculation about what they might contain.
[…] Chris Ingram, a Republican strategist from Tampa, said he asked Rubio during the Senate run if there were any issues that would arise and the candidate disclosed to him charging for “flooring” in his West Miami home. But as questions grew about Republican spending in general — the party chairman, Jim Greer, would serve time in prison — Rubio insisted he had done nothing improper.
“There is nothing to drop. I have the statements now. It is all mostly a bunch of commercial airlines, rental cars, hotels and travel restaurants. Any personal charges were paid by (me) directly,” Rubio wrote Ingram in an email on Dec. 24, 2009. Ingram wrote back, “I hope you’re right.”
In his 2012 book, Rubio did not mention flooring. “I pulled the wrong card from my wallet to pay for pavers.” He attributed the family reunion expense in Thomasville, Ga. — a celebration of him becoming House speaker — to a mistake by his travel agent, who used the wrong card.
“There are always these things with Marco, like, ‘Oh, let me just explain that,’ ” Ingram said in interview this week. “You want to look at the guy and say, ‘You’re not a lawyer defending a client in a criminal trial trying to get them off by saying whatever needs to be said.’ He explains things away enough to convolute the issue and then people don’t even know what the question was.” (read more)
