On Morning Joe last week, Joe Scarborough rightly called out Marco Rubio for flat-out lying to the American people when he was pressed about personal financial troubles at last week’s CNBC presidential debate. A PolitiFact analysis also rated Rubio’s statement false, stating “all of these events happened and have been well-documented.”
The debate moderator was completely in the right to question Rubio’s maturity and wisdom—his repeated lies not only show how ill-prepared he is to manage his own finances, it also underscores how ill-suited Marco Rubio is to be the next president.
Press Reaction
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough: “Marco just flat-out lied to the American people.” SCARBOROUGH: “I think it was [CNBC host] Becky Quick who went down the list of proven things about Marco’s foreclosures and all of Marco’s economic problems. Talking about lying; Marco said ‘I’m not going to answer those lies they’ve all been discredited.’ […] Marco just flat-out lied to the American people, there. And I was stunned that the moderators didn’t stop there and go, ‘Wait a second, these are court records. What are you talking about?’ […] And yet everybody’s going, ‘Oh, Marco was great.’ No, Marco lied about his financials.” [MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 10/29/15]
PolitiFact: “All of these events happened and have been well-documented…. We rate Rubio’s statement False.” “Rubio said the premise of questions about his financial skills are ‘discredited attacks from Democrats and my political opponents.’ […] All of these events happened and have been well-documented. It’s not accurate for Rubio to refer to the issues as ‘discredited,’ whether his opponents have used them to attack him or not. Quick was not making things up nor shading the facts. We rate Rubio’s statement False.” [PolitiFact, 10/30/15]
Orlando Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell: Marco Rubio had “a string of financial messes, personal and political.” “Rubio refused to answer, describing the question as ‘a litany of discredited attacks from Democrats and my political opponents.’ That’s simply not true. Rubio has a string of financial messes, personal and political. And anyone who watched his record in Florida knows it. He was mired in debt, even while living a life of limo rides and travel and telling others to live within their means. Don’t take it from me. Take it from court documents. And investigative reports.” [Orlando Sentinel, 10/31/15]
MSNBC’s Steve Benen: “It was a legitimate line of inquiry…for which the Republican had no answers.” “Despite the fact that everything Quick said was 100% accurate, he then stumbled through a clumsy answer that seemed to inadvertently insult his wife. It was a legitimate line of inquiry – Rubio hasn’t just struggled with economic issues as a senator; he’s struggled even more in his own personal finances – for which the Republican had no answers.” [MSNBC, 10/29/15]
Fortune’s Ben Geier: Marco Rubio’s personal financial struggles have been “well detailed.” “There’s also the pesky detail of Rubio’s personal finance history, which is well detailed and was brought up again during the CNBC debate: In the past, he’s struggled with debt while making extravagant purchases, as well as mixing campaign and personal cash.” [Fortune, 11/1/15]
New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza: Marco Rubio’s “personal finances have been raised as an issue for years.” “Becky Quick, a CNBC correspondent, asked Rubio the following question: ‘Senator Rubio, you yourself have said that you’ve had issues. […] In terms of all of that, it raises the question whether you have the maturity and wisdom to lead this seventeen-trillion-dollar economy. What do you say?’ This was as predictable a question as Rubio could expect. His personal finances have been raised as an issue for years. In his own memoir, Rubio wrote about the troubles he had mixing personal and business purchases on a Republican Party credit card, and lamented his ‘lack of bookkeeping skills.’ But Rubio decided that the question was hostile and that he could therefore evade it.” [New Yorker, 10/29/15]