Marco Rubio to Release Records for Controversial Card Charges in a 'Few Weeks'
Allegations are resurfacing that Rubio misused a Florida GOP Party credit card.
— -- Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl he would release records for a Florida Republican Party charge card “in a few weeks” after talk of his use of it for personal expenses surfaced again.
“We’re going through them to make sure we have everything in place, that we don’t have to do it twice. These are old records,” Rubio said. “All of the expenses are already detailed in the Republican Party’s filings, in department of State, in the department of Elections. In the next few weeks we’ll make that public.”
While Rubio was Speaker of the House in Florida, he used a charge card issued by the state Republican Party for personal expenses. The expenses originally surfaced during his 2010 Senate race following investigations by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times. They came up again during the third Republican debate.
Rubio says the state party card has been used mistakenly on a couple of occasions and contends his family paid the credit card company directly for personal expenses made on the card.
In 2010, a Florida man filed an ethics complaint against Rubio for his misuse of the state party card, but two years later, the state ethics commission tossed out the case.
There was no criminal investigation into the actions.
Rubio was asked about the card earlier, on ABC's "Good Morning America."
“People need to understand what they’re talking about here. It wasn’t a credit card, it was an American [Express] charge card, secured under my personal credit in conjunction with the Party,” Rubio said.
Rubio told Karl it was important to make the distinction between a “credit card” and a “charge card”.
“A credit card you can run a balance on," he said. "A charge card, you have to pay off at the end of the month.”
“Every month a bill came to my house and I would review it. If there was something personal I paid for it. If it was political the party paid for it. I didn’t pay for it after the fact, I paid during the time,” Rubio insisted.