In the News
Marco Rubio Is Breaking Senate Ethics Rules…Again
Marco Rubio is once again using the taxpayer-funded resources of his Senate office to promote himself and his campaign. Last year, Rubio gave an interview about his campaign from behind his desk in his Senate office, an apparent violation of Senate Ethics rules. Now his campaign’s Twitter account is using photos, videos, and other materials that Rubio’s campaign admitted were created by his Senate staff.
The Florida Democratic Party is holding Marco Rubio accountable by filing a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee. Read more below about Marco Rubio’s latest ethics violation below:
Florida Politics: Florida Democratic Party files ethics complaint on Marco Rubio’s Twitter use
Key points:
- The Florida Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for allegedly using official U.S. Senate resources on his campaign’s Twitter account.
- The complaint against Rubio filed Wednesday cites seven specific instances in which the Twitter account found on his official campaign website, @marcorubio, also tweets links from his official Senate account @SenRubioPress, which is the Senator’s account for official business. Rules expressly forbid mixing campaign activities and official business, but Rubio’s staff denied that he did so.
- One video shared on @marcorubio Feb. 19 shows Rubio sitting in what appears to be his Senate office and discussing the Ukraine situation. That’s a violation of a rule that bans the use of official Senate resources for campaigns, the complaint alleges. At least one of these tweets from @marcorubio involved video footage of an official Senate proceeding, according to the complaint.
- Rubio’s campaign officials don’t deny that Senate resources have been used to tweet items via the @marcorubio account.
- Click on the Twitter icon on Rubio’s campaign website, however, and it links to the account that’s the focus of the complaint. And that’s why the complaint labels @marcorubio as the campaign’s Twitter account, officials at the Florida Democratic Party said.
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