Rubio’s Corporate Credit Card ‘Isn’t Really a

He also personally paid the $250 in late fees, NBC noted.

Top Rubio adviser Todd Harris told CNN in an email that the contradictions between what the party spokeswoman said in February 2010 and what the independent investigation found nine months later proves that there was confusion over the rules.

Rubio on Wednesday played down the importance of the credit card and fended off questions about his finances, portraying himself as an everyday American who can relate to the struggles of the electorate.

Instead Bush attacked his former protegee, at the last Republican debate, for missing Senate votes. He and the party reviewed the monthly bills. That story said there is still a period of time between 2005 and 2006 for which Rubio has not released charge card statements. Numerous charges on the card looked like legitimate business expenses – the drumbeat of schmoozing by a rising politician.

“This program’s now been around for three years and we haven’t signed it by now … we’re not going to extend the program”, Rubio said on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

It was unclear which of these expenses were personal or GOP-related. Rubio maintains that he never used the card for personal use, and that any personal charges he made he paid American Express directly for.

The group also has a similar name to a super-PAC supporting Rubio, the Conservative Solutions PAC, and even shares a few staff, according to the letter, which cited news reports.

“And the world has dramatically changed just in the last five years”. Given Rubio’s penchant for blaming the media, Democrats, his opponents and anyone or anything else he can think of, it doesn’t appear as if he’s gotten the lesson. In the years that followed, through December 2008, he used it 65 more times for what he said were personal items.

The campaign did not indicate Saturday what those charges were.

Rubio was among several state GOP lawmakers given access to American Express cards through the Republican Party of Florida, which offered a way for lawmakers to get around the state’s strict ban on accepting gifts that was put into law in 2006.

GOP presidential candidate and Florida Sen.

Lee led her article, “Here’s why Marco Rubio’s corporate card saga isn’t really a scandal”, with the text of Senator Rubio’s statement from the ABC morning show.

After the Times/Herald revealed Rubio’s 2007-08 AmEx spending, Rubio declined to release the 2005-06 records, deeming them an internal party matter. That refusal added mystery to what the reports might contain but questions largely faded until Rubio entered the presidential race and a much higher level of scrutiny. There were just eight personal charges listed, for a total of $7,243.74, which Rubio’s campaign said he personally repaid in subsequent billing cycles.

Other questionable charges ranged from $25.76 at Everglades Lumber for “supplies”, and $765 at Apple’s online store for “computer supplies”.

The next month, Rubio charged $723.60 on United Airlines for his wife to fly from Miami to Denver to Aspen.

“In hindsight, I wished that none of them had ever been charged”, wrote Rubio of the personal expenses.