Marco Rubio slams NYT for ‘arrogantly’ using student loan debt to question financial acumen

Marco Rubio’s campaign fired back at The New York Times over its critical piece on the Florida senator’s financial acumen.

The newspaper wrote on Tuesday of Mr. Rubio’s student loan debt, mortgage, recent retirement savings withdrawals, and “strikingly low savings rate.” The piece comes just days after the newspaper reported on the Florida Republican’s history of minor traffic violations.

“Soon after he was elected to the Legislature in 2000, he reported a net worth of zero, about $150,000 in student loan debt, and $30,000 in what he called assorted credit and retail debt. […] Despite an income of $90,000 in 2001, Mr. Rubio wrote in his memoir, monthly expenses became so strained that he and his wife sold one of their two cars and, along with their young daughter, moved into the home of his mother-in-law,” the newspaper reported.

Communications Director Alex Conant released the following statement Tuesday morning, Mediaite reported: “The New York Times today attacked Marco Rubio because he could not afford to pay for college, arrogantly describing his student loan debt as ’a financial hole of his own making.’ The attack from the Times is just the latest in their continued hits against Marco and his family. […] First The New York Times attacked Marco over traffic tickets, and now they think he doesn’t have enough money. Of course if he was worth millions, The Times would then attack him for being too rich, like they did to Mitt Romney,” Mr. Conant said, Mediaite reported.

When contacted for The Times’ story, Mr. Rubio said “Like most Americans, I know what it’s like for money to be a limited resource and to have to manage it accordingly. Our primary financial motivation over the last 15 years has not been to become wealthy. It has been to provide for our children a happy upbringing and the chance at a great future.”