Marco Rubio continues to try and duck his scandalous personal finances and his highly questionable use of someone else’s credit card. The national media may want to elevate Rubio to some GOP establishment savior, but the Florida press knows who he really is and they’re not going to let him get away with dodging and ducking an issue that should eliminate him from consideration in any public office, much less the Presidency.
The Miami Herald has done some digging and has pointed out some rather strange charges on the GOP credit card.
An analysis by the Herald/Times of the new statements, however, found Rubio spent freely on the sort of items that are difficult to prove — or disprove — as party business expenses.
Rubio, then a fast-rising state lawmaker, spent $3,962 in 83 visits over 22 months to gas stations in Miami-Dade County alone, with some charges for $30 or $40 coming as little as a day or two apart. He spent nearly $1,200 on local meals costing $30 or less each, including 13 charges of $10 or less, mostly at La Carreta Cuban restaurant. Twice he used the AmEx card for flowers, and one time each at CVS, Target, Walgreens and Publix.
“Most [campaign] travel arrangements don’t pay for food when you’re in your hometown,” said Larry Noble, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group in Washington. “If it’s one mistake, that’s understandable. You’re not supposed to be constantly making mistakes.”
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The Herald/Times found Rubio spent $227 at Family Bookstores, a Christian bookseller. He charged $557 in five visits to Barnes & Noble in South Miami. There’s $1,064 at a Tallahassee Best Buy in March 2005 and $4,390.04 at a Miami CompUSA in August 2006. He made four online payments ranging from $84 to $173 to Sprint over three months.
Of Rubio’s Miami-area gas-stations purchases, two were made at a pair of stations, a Shell and a Citgo, on Jan. 22, 2005 — one for $5.02 and one for $5.03. On Sept. 10, 2006, he charged $47.44 at a Chevron station; the next day, he charged $71.41 at a Hess station. The tiniest purchases were for 73 cents and $1.39 at a Shell station in Miami, both on Aug. 27, 2005.
On New Years’ Eve in 2005 he charged $275 at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Coral Gables. The same day he charged $50 at a Citgo in Miami. How those are related to party business remains unknown.
Now these aren’t charges that Rubio claims were his personal charges, these are charges he claims he made for the GOP. This would be as close to embezzlement as you can get.
As I mentioned in A blog a couple of days ago, Rubio was making $300,000 a year as a lawyer while he was a legislator in Florida, he’s been making $175,000 a year as a U.S. Senator, and he got an $800,000 book advance and yet he lists his net worth as of May 2015 as $175,000 in the hole! I believe the real Rubio story is where did nearly 3 million dollars go?! And this liar is trying to pass himself off as an average American with the normal debts average people have, and the media is letting him get away with it!
But why didn’t anyone at the state GOP recognize that Rubio was not only making personal charges on the GOP credit card, but there were also some highly questionable charges he claims were made for the GOP? Well, the Naples Daily News decided to find the person in the GOP who should have noticed what was going on.
Former Republican Party of Florida chairman Carole Jean Jordan said Tuesday it was never her job to question personal expenses charged by Marco Rubio when he used a party American Express card as a state lawmaker.
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She said she never questioned what Rubio acknowledges were personal expenses worth an estimated $16,000 that he later reimbursed. "That wasn't our job," Jordan said. "Somebody in Mr. Rubio's office, possibly the Speaker himself, they approved their own expenses. It wasn't my job to judge what they spent their money on."
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Jordan said it was "absolutely" the policy of the party that cards provided were to be used solely for party business.
So nobody checks the expenses of people who have GOP credit cards? No wonder Rubio went wild with someone else’s credit card, he didn’t think he would get caught! As Rubio rises in the polls while Ben crazy Carson drops, the media should have to give the same scrutiny to Rubio’s past as they have to Carson’s. This story isn’t going away and I think will eventually transform from a credit card scandal to a where did all of Rubio’s money go scandal.