A Washington Post investigation found Rubio made 23 military aircraft trips to Florida, with 15 personal journeys costing taxpayers over $1.2 million.
An investigation by The Washington Post found that Rubio attended at least 10 University of Florida football games over the past two seasons, including five during the current autumn campaign. Of the 23 trips Rubio made to Gainesville aboard military aircraft, 15 were classified as personal journeys, according to the newspaper. Using published Department of Defense hourly operating rates for different military aircraft, the Post estimated that the flights had cost more than $1.2 million. On November 7, he arrived in Gainesville aboard an Air Force C-37, an aircraft commonly used to transport senior government officials, and watched the Gators lose 23-7 to Oklahoma.
However, the Washington Post reported that Rubio’s use of government aircraft appeared to exceed that of his predecessors.
Antony Blinken, who served as secretary of state under Joe Biden, reportedly made personal journeys aboard government aircraft “only a couple of times a year”, according to two former officials cited by the newspaper. Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Rubio’s travel appeared “more of an optics issue than a violation”, but argued that the frequency of the trips deserved scrutiny. Brown told the Post . Johnson said Rubio would continue to use government transport and would reimburse the government “for all personal travel”.
His son, Anthony Rubio, is a walk-on running back for the university’s team, the Florida Gators. Anthony did not play in that game. “If this travel becomes something that is undermining the integrity of your service, are you really taking care of taxpayer dollars the way that you’re obligated to as a public official? Rubio defended his travel in a statement to the Washington Post , saying: “I have and will continue to try and make it to as many events that are important to me personally and to my family as possible.