Today, Marco Rubio went back on his word and told Florida voters that on second thought, he would treat them like a fallback plan. It was quite the rocky rollout for the Senator who is well known for skipping work but not very well-known for any accomplishments and is now asking to be sent back to Washington to serve another term in the place he hates. Rubio couldn’t even make his announcement this morning without skipping a Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Take a look at some of the brutal coverage Rubio faced today. And remember, it’s just Day One.
And ICYMI…Take a look at our breakdown of Rubio’s statement announcing his re-election. Make sure you’re sitting down though…It’s sure to give you the spins.
Politico: Rubio skips foreign policy hearing as he announces reelection
Marco Rubio missed a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday morning — at the same time he was announcing plans to run for reelection.
The first-term Republican senator, who was pilloried during his presidential run for his record of missed votes and hearings, skipped a closed hearing on security for sales of military equipment to other nations, according to attendees from both parties.
While it’s not unusual for a senator to miss hearings, Rubio’s timing played directly into the Democratic narrative that he has neglected his job. In a series of interviews and statements Wednesday morning, Rubio announced his plans to seek a second term, after insisting for months he would retire from the Senate.
Sun Sentinel: Marco Rubio flip-flops on re-election, wants another term as U.S. senator
Sen. Marco Rubio abandoned his complete, repeated and unequivocal vow not to run for re-election, and said Wednesday he’s now running to keep the seat that he’s been running from.
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But his popularity at home dipped after absorbing the slings and arrows from rivals — plus self-inflicted wounds — during his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
He’ll have to overcome a perception that he didn’t care much about the Senate job. As he prepared to run for president, and while he was a candidate, he racked up the worst attendance record of any of the four U.S. senators running for president
Tampa Bay Times: Marco Rubio reverses course, announces he’s running for re-election to the Senate
In a major reversal highlighting Republican fear over losing the Senate majority and his own ambition, Marco Rubio on Wednesday will break a longstanding promise not to seek re-election…
PolitiFact: Marco Rubio flip-flops on running for Senate
We rate his change in position as a Full Flop.
Huffington Post: Marco Rubio Decides To Run For Senate Again
The senator, who ran a failed campaign for president this year, announced in March that he would not run for re-election to the Senate, nor for governor of Florida in 2018.
“I’ll be a private citizen in January,” Rubio said.
He has even spoken about his displeasure with his time in the Senate.
“I don’t know that ‘hate’ is the right word,” Rubio told The Washington Post in October. “I’m frustrated.”
Washington Examiner: Marco Rubio faces rocky road to re-election
Rubio’s future now rests on winning re-election to the Senate, but he faces a rocky road after Florida Republicans rejected him in favor of Donald Trump in a March 15 presidential primary. Losing his home state twice in one yearwould be a devastating blow, possibly one from which he couldn’t recover.
Blocking Rubio’s path to victory is a possible competitive GOP primary and higher voter turnout in the general election that could benefit his Democratic opponent. Then there’s Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, whom he disagrees with on key issues and whose controversies could be a drag on his campaign.
Washington Post: The 2016 election shows why people don’t trust politicians
Marco Rubio, as you might have heard, is now running for reelection — despite numerous promises that he wouldn’t do it or that it wasn’t in his plans. He has said the attack on Orlando 10 days ago changed things for him, but even before then, it was clear that there was some potential waffling going on.
And you wonder why people don’t trust what politicians say.
Daily Beast: Marco Rubio Wants to Return to a Job He Hates
It took just one year for Marco Rubio to go from Beltway darling to “bless his heart.”
Rubio, whom Florida politicos have known for years as ambition in human form, ran audaciously for the United States Senate in 2010, shoving former Republican governor Charlie Crist out of the way and out of the party in the process
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Even as he ran, it was clear to most Florida political watchers that Rubio viewed the Senate as a mere stepping stone to the presidency.
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Now, Rubio is mounting his latest reinvention; going from “never going to run for re-election” to the Senate, to maybe, to “yes.” Rubio watchers in Florida say the decision has to do with two things: the beseeching of D.C. Republicans like Mitch McConnell, who see Rubio as the party’s best chance of holding onto the seat in a tough election cycle; and Rubio’s desire to run for president again in 2020—something he believes he can best do from a Senate perch.
MSNBC: Rubio breaks his word, decides to seek re-election
When Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) launched his ill-fated presidential campaign, he made a bold and meaningful promise to the public: White House or bust. Rubio wouldn’t treat a Senate seat as a consolation prize; he’d either win the 2016 presidential election or he’d be out of public office altogether. It was probably the most honorable moment of his career.
After his national campaign failed miserably, Rubio heard the speculation about him possibly breaking his word, and he dismissed the chatter as an irritating distraction. Just five weeks ago, the senator, annoyed by Beltway scuttlebutt, said on Twitter, “I have only said like 10,000 times I will be a private citizen in January.”
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This reversal will surprise no one; the far-right senator has been telegraphing the move for weeks. It was largely a matter of when, not if, Rubio would go back on his promise to the public. But that doesn’t make the reversal any less ridiculous.
…The problem wasn’t just Rubio’s reluctance to do his job; it was also his argument, made repeatedly on the presidential campaign trail, that his job didn’t matter. Rubio argued over and over again that Senate work is dumb and pointless, and it just didn’t matter if he showed up for work or not.
…At an event last month, Rubio told a Florida audience, “Don’t just run because there’s an open position and you can win. Because if you run for something because it’s open and you can win you’re going to regret that decision. You’re going to get there you’re going to be bored. You’re going to be antsy. You’re not going to like it.”
Oddly enough, Rubio is not only breaking his word, he’s ignoring his own advice.
Washington Post: Marco Rubio is running for Senate again. So that he can run for president again.
Marco Rubio officially reversed course Wednesday, announcing that he will run for re-election to the Senate after months of insisting that speculation to that effect was groundless and flat wrong
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And for Rubio, who quite clearly wants to run for president again, he was facing four years (at least) of standing on the sidelines if he didn’t run for a second term this November.
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And, remember that Rubio has said — lots of time — that he didn’t like the Senate and thought it didn’t do much of anything. Two quick quotes to that end:
1) “We’re not going to fix America with senators and congressmen.”
2) “I don’t know that ‘hate’ is the right word. I’m frustrated.”
NY Times: In Reversal, Marco Rubio to Seek Re-election to Senate
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said Wednesday that he has decided to seek re-election to the Senate after months of insisting he would not run again, a reversal that will reshape one of the most competitive races in the country.
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He also made no secret of his distaste for Washington and the often glacial pace of business on Capitol Hill, words he is certain to see turned against him in attack ads from Democrats who had been optimistic about their chances at taking back Mr. Rubio’s seat before he entered the race.
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The senator has told colleagues and advisers that he would like to run for president again, either in 2020 or 2024. But he increasingly came to think that doing so from the private sector would be difficult.
Bloomberg: Rubio to Seek Senate Re-Election After Presidential Loss
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has decided to run for re-election after all… The first-term senator from Florida had said he wouldn’t seek re-election when he announced a run for president in 2015. After losing the Florida primary to Donald Trump by almost 20 percentage points and later dropping out of the race, Rubio now faces the additional challenge of explaining to Florida voters why he changed his mind after making so many definitive statements that he would not return to the Senate.
Miami Herald: Rubio says yes to another Senate run after all
…Rubio had been adamant after his presidential bid failed this year that he would not return to Washington, which he has disdained as dysfunctional and ineffective.
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(“I mean, I spent more time designing the defense for the sixth-grade football team at Florida Christian School than I did thinking of running for office over the last couple of months,” he said.)
Politico: Rubio blasts opponents, Trump as he announces reelection
In a complete about-face, Sen. Marco Rubio officially announced an 11th-hour reelection bid Wednesday…
Washington Examiner: Confirming Senate bid, Rubio says Trump presidency ‘worrisome’
Toward the end of the race, Rubio panned Trump as a “con artist,” questioned the size of his genitalia and argued that he was unqualified to gain access to the nation’s nuclear codes. Since ending his campaign, Rubio has said that he will vote for Trump, incurring a mountain of criticism given his past statements.
NY Mag: Rubio Comes Full Circle, Will Run for Reelection
Since he telegraphed this latest flip-flop extensively, even attributing it somewhat clumsily to how he was “impacted” by the Orlando massacre, no one will be surprised when Marco Rubio announces today that he will, after all, run for a second term in the Senate. Thanks to his many pledges not to do this, he will immediately have to sit down and eat bowl after bowl of his own words. But a bigger problem is probably the contempt he so often showed for the Senate during his presidential campaign, brushing off missed votes as meaningless and all but blaming his immigration-policy albatross on the corrupt and corrupting nature of Congress.
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He might want to start his comeback bid by showing a little more constancy and a lot less willingness to turn and spin in the wind. We all know from his famous performance in that New Hampshire primary debate that Marco Rubio is capable of staying on message, even when he shouldn’t. If there’s ever a time for Rubio to get in touch with his inner robot, it’s now.
Buzzfeed: Rubio May See Complications If He Wants To Campaign On Addiction Treatment Issue
The same might be expected from Sen. Marco Rubio — who announced Wednesday that he will run for re-election in a state that’s often called the “pill mill capital” — but there’s one problem: He didn’t actually vote on the bill because of his presidential campaign.
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And, in Florida, some say there’s more to his record on prescription drug legislation that doesn’t quite fit the current trend toward robust legislation to restrict illegal access to prescription drugs and to increase addiction treatment. When he was a member of the state House, Rubio was accused of killing a bill pushed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush that would have created a prescription-drug monitoring program, according to news reports from the time and interviews with those involved. Those close to the senator say the failure of the bill in the state House was more tied to privacy concerns, not politics.
“The failure of this bill was my biggest disappointment in the legislature,” said then-state Sen. Lock Burt, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, in an interview. “It caused more deaths than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“I got it out of the Senate four different times. Rubio in my view had a major role in killing it.”
