Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Monday that he would not accept an offer to join the Republican ticket as a vice presidential nominee, and forcefully pushed back against a Washington Post story that questioned the accuracy of Rubio's self-told family history during an interview on Fox News.
“I’m not mad about it. I just want the record to be straight,” Rubio said. “Look, if they want to say I got the dates wrong, they’re right and I admit that, I didn't know, but I got the dates wrong. But if they want to say that my parents weren’t exiles and I misled people about the essence of my personal story, that’s not fair. It’s outrageous. And I really wish they would have corrected their article because I don’t think it accurately reflects what I’ve said or what the essence of my story is.”
Last week, a story published in the
Post revealed that Rubio's parents had first come to the United States in 1956, well before Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Rubio's Senate biography said that his parents had fled communism to come to the United States.
But Rubio said that while the date may have been wrong, his parents were still exiles, unable to return to their native homeland without subjecting themselves to communist rule.
"The bottom line is, it misses the point. I don’t need to embellish my narrative. My narrative is very simple — I am the son of exiles and of immigrants, and that has framed my political thought," Rubio said.
Rubio also ruled out a vice presidential run despite repeated prodding from Fox host Bill O'Reilly, saying he would not join a ticket no matter who the Republican nominee was.
"I'm going to say I've been here in the United States Senate for about a year, there's some things I want to finish here," Rubio said.
O'Reilly pressed Rubio, asking, "If you could elevate the Republican Party into the White house, you’re telling me you wouldn’t?"
“Well, why can’t I do that from the Senate?” Rubio said.
He went on to defend the role of the Senate in setting public policy.
“There's a lot of important policy that comes out of the Senate,” Rubio said. “The Senate’s an important place. We can do a lot of good from there if we focus on it.”
