Marco Rubio Falls Apart When Asked Why He Has Missed The Most Votes In The Senate
By: Jason Easley more from Jason Easley
Sunday, October 25th, 2015, 11:52 am
When pressed during a CNN interview about why he thinks federal workers should be fired for not doing their jobs while he has missed the most votes in the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio put his foot in his mouth and said that voting in the Senate is not important for a Senator.
In an interview that aired on CNN’s State of the Union, Jamie Gangel pointed out to Rubio that other Senators running for president (Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders) have only missed ten votes while the Senator from Florida has missed 59.
Rubio answered, “Well, I can tell you that in the history of presidential politics when they’ve been running for politics in the Senate, they’ve missed votes.”
Sen. Rubio tried to explain away his absences by arguing that the Senate votes don’t mean anything, “A lot of these votes don’t mean anything. They’re not going to pass, and even if they did, the President would veto them.”
Gangel reminded Rubio of his comments on the Senate floor that federal workers who aren’t performing should be fired, “Someone might say you’re not showing up. You’re not doing your job by voting.”
Caught in his hypocrisy, Rubio tried to dig his way out, “Not true. Because voting is not the most important part of the job. The most important thing that a Senator does is constituent services. ”
Gangel stopped him, “Wait a minute. Votes aren’t important. Intelligence Committee hearing aren’t important.”
Rubio was doomed by this point, “We do all the intelligence briefings. I was just there this Tuesday. I got fully briefed and caught up on everything that’s happening in the world. I’m fully aware. We have a staffer that’s assigned to intelligence who gets constant briefings. I think votes,of course, are important, but unfortunately, too many of them today are not meaningful.”
The main purpose of a Senator is to represent the people of his/her state in the Senate. The people aren’t represented if their Senator doesn’t show up. Taxpayers are not paying Rubio a six figure salary to have a staffer handle intelligence briefings.
Once Rubio realized what he had said, he tried to backtrack, but it was too late. Marco Rubio seems to be believe that he doesn’t have to show up and do his job as a Senator because Republicans don’t have a 60 vote majority in the Senate.
Rubio avoided the pointed about his not attending committee hearings by claiming that he gets briefings. Briefings are like skipping class and borrowing a friend’s notes to get caught up on what you missed.
The Republican establishment loves Rubio’s look and bio. No one in establishment politics can figure out why he is failing. Sen. Rubio’s constant habit of self-destructing every time he opens his mouth is why his presidential campaign is going nowhere fast.
Rubio wants to be in the Senate so that he can run for president, but he appears to have no interest in doing his job as a Senator. Marco Rubio’s lack of commitment to the people who elected to serve him is the reason he doesn’t deserve to be in the Senate, much less be considered a serious contender for the White House.
That's why he is not running to be reelected as Senator.
Oh, wait... he said he's not running for reelection because even when he votes it doesn't count. Or wait... maybe he said the reason he said he missed so many votes was because he was quitting.
I can't keep his excuses straight.
I, personally worked with Rubio’s office/staffers for two years trying to get some relief from the wrongful total closure of the east coast red snapper fishery. Had weekly interaction with them, arranged deep sea fishing trips for them so they could see firsthand the abundance of these fish. The Florida fishing industry both commercial, charter and the tourism industry have been hard hit by this unwarranted closure.
What did his constituents and the Florida fishing industry get from Marco? ZERO!
To Marco: I would not vote for you if you were running for dogcatcher.