Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is unable to find office space in Tampa because of weekly protests outside of his previous building, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“The protestors disrupted other tenants and cost the company too much money… News coverage of the decision put local landlords and property management companies on notice that Rubio could be a problematic tenant. That added another challenge in a tight rental market, where leasing fees are high and vacancy rates are low.”
Miami Herald: “It may be hard to fathom outside of Miami, but the faraway island of Cuba and Cuban-American politics could have played a role in Thursday’s historic hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
“Did the influential Republican senator from Miami on the committee, Marco Rubio, trade the integrity of this country for the pledge of a U.S. policy shift on Cuba from President Donald Trump? The optics — and the timing of a yet unscheduled visit by Trump to Miami to announce a rollback advocated by Rubio of President Barack Obama’s engagement policy — certainly make it seem that way.”
Senate Intelligence Committee members Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) are scheduled to dine with the president Tuesday night — two days before their committee questions ousted FBI Director James Comey, the Washington Examiner reports.
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“Obviously, we all understand the importance of this presidential race. I would just ask everybody this: Can this country afford to have a president under investigation by the FBI? Think of the trauma that would do to this country.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), criticizing Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally on November 1, 2016.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) won’t participate in town hall meetings because he says political activists will crash them to create a media spectacle of people who “heckle and scream at me in front of cameras,” Politico reports.
Said Rubio: “They are not town halls anymore. What these groups really want is for me to schedule a public forum, they then organize three, four, five, six hundred liberal activists in the two counties or wherever I am in the state.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced that he would support President Trump’s pick to lead the State Department, removing the last significant stumbling block to his nomination, The Hill reports.
“Rubio, who aggressively questioned Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson during his hearing earlier this month, had been the lone Republican holdout on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-AZ) “said that they will back the nomination of Rex Tillerson, clearing the way for the oil executive to become secretary of state and leaving just one drama unresolved: What will Marco Rubio do?,” the Washington Post asks.
“The Republican senator from Florida made clear during Tillerson’s confirmation hearing earlier this month that he had significant reservations… Since then, Rubio has come under significant pressure from Republican party leaders to back Tillerson and avoid a split within the GOP on one of President Trump’s most high-profile picks.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he has yet to decide whether to vote to confirm former Exxon Mobil chief Rex Tillerson as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Said Rubio: “We’re going to go through the transcripts of the hearing, which I’ve begun to do. We need to have a foreign policy that while always acting in the national interest of the United States is always rooted in our values as a nation.”
Politico: “The Florida senator produced quite a fireworks show this week with his grilling of a seemingly rattled Tillerson at his confirmation hearing for secretary of state. But opposing Tillerson on the Senate floor — and antagonizing Trump, whom Rubio was dismissing as a “con man” around this time a year ago, before eventually endorsing him — is another thing entirely.”
“Intentionally or not, Rubio is out on a limb after demanding denunciations of Russia and other authoritarian countries that Tillerson refused to offer. GOP leaders believe the former ExxonMobil CEO remains a solid bet for confirmation with or without Rubio’s support, but the Florida senator is being watched especially closely because he’s seen as a proxy for other GOP hawks.”
For members: Did Rex Tillerson Lie Under Oath?
“First of all, because I’ve said it. Not only am I going to serve for six years, I’ve been honest with people, the things I want to achieve, some may take longer than six years to achieve.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by CNN, ruling out a presidential run in 2020.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) tells ABC News Republicans are making a mistake by jumping on allegedly hacked emails released by Wikileaks to criticize Hillary Clinton. In fact, he says he won’t talk about the hacked emails at all.
Said Rubio: “As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process and I will not indulge it. Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us.”
“This election is not rigged.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by CNN.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) reiterated his support for Donald Trump, “bucking a wave of fellow Republicans who have withdrawn their endorsement or called on him to quit the presidential race after video of his sexually aggressive comments about women were disseminated last week,” Politico reports.
Said Rubio: “I ran against Donald Trump. And while I respect that voters chose him as the GOP nominee, I have never hesitated to oppose his policies I disagree with. And I have consistently rejected his offensive rhetoric and behavior.”
Hours after a dominating primary win, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a Wednesday morning challenge to Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL): face off in six live televised debates, including one on Spanish-language TV, Politico reports.
“In challenging his rival, Rubio is cutting against the conventional wisdom for winning campaigns, which usually seek to minimize on-stage debates with trailing rivals. Rubio has led Murphy in the last nine polls taken since July 1.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “refused to commit to serving a full six-year term in the Senate should he win reelection,” Politico reports.
Said Rubio: “No one can make that commitment because you don’t know what the future’s gonna hold in your life personally or politically.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) with a three-point lead over Rep. Patrick Murphy in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 45%.
Last month, Rubio led by 13 points.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “At this stage of the campaign, Republican U.S. Senate candidates may be running against their own presidential nominee, Donald Trump, as much as they are against their Democratic opponents. The incumbent U.S. senators seeking re-election are running better than Trump. But if Trump continues to lag behind in the presidential race, that will make it more difficult for GOP candidates, logic holds, up and down the ballot.”
Sen. Marco Rubio told WGN that his “sense” is that Donald Trump’s positions on issues will more fully develop as he takes on the role as president.
Said Rubio: “I view the Senate as a place that can always act as a check and balance on whoever the next president is. I also think there’s something to be said for, once you’re actually in that position, once you’re actually working at this thing, and you’re in there, and you start to have access to information that perhaps you didn’t have before, especially for someone that’s never been in politics, I think it starts to impact your views a little bit.”
“On second thought, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will not be attending the GOP convention this month,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Rubio had been planning to attend the confab in Cleveland but now joins a long list of Republicans who seem to be calculating it’s better politics to stay away.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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