Marco Rubio paid for a $5,000 week-long stay at the Venetian, a luxury hotel and casino in Las Vegas, with the Republican Party of Florida’s American Express card, according to records his campaign released on Saturday to Politico. Rubio subsequently paid 30% of the costs “to reflect the fact that part of his trip was personal.”
Marc Caputo, who wrote the story for Politico, said that Rubio was in Las Vegas for a fundraiser. Most fundraisers, however, are not a week long. It was unclear how Rubio calculated that he was personally responsible for only 30% of the bill.
News of Rubio’s trip to Vegas was included in statements from an American Express card issued to Rubio by the Republican Party of Florida. The new statements covered the period of 2005–2006. He was not supposed to use the cards for personal expenses, according to a party spokeswoman. Other records covering 2007–2008, released in 2010, revealed that Rubio put the cost of a $10,000 family vacation on the card. He later reimbursed the party. He also charged the party $1,000 for repairs to his minivan.
Rubio was soley responsible for determining whether charges were related to party business.
Politico’s story on the new documents is titled “New Rubio credit-card data show less spending.” The article suggests that Rubio played rope-a-dope with the press. The campaign “waited a little longer to set a trap for critics to repeat speculative exaggerations about the size and scope of his 2005–06 credit card expenses,” according to Politico.
But the documents actually reveal significantly more spending that Rubio previously represented. In his 2012 book American Son, Rubio said that a total of $160,000 was charged to the card. But the total charges to the card, based on the new information released today, was actually 182,000. (There was $117,000 in charges previously disclosed and today’s release covered another $65,000.) Of that total, $23,252.50 in charges were for personal expenses, according to Rubio.