Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Sen. Marco Rubio should be sued for the time he was campaigning for president.
“He was never here and the state of Florida was missing a senator the whole time,” Reid said when asked for a response to Rubio’s decision to run for a second Senate term.
Reid said Rubio “should be sued to pay back all the money the federal government paid him when he was off campaigning for president.”
Reid said Rubio cashed his Senate paycheck while he was absent.
“Marco Rubio in my opinion, owes the American taxpayer money and owes the state of Florida some time,” he said.
Rubio’s camp dismissed Reid’s remarks.
“No one in Florida cares about Harry Reid’s ramblings, and we don’t recall him making this argument about Barack Obama when he missed 64 percent of votes while running for president in 2008,” a Rubio spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner. “Hillary Clinton, who missed 68 percent in 2008, or Bernie Sanders who until last week hadn’t voted since January.”
A reporter asked Reid whether the same standard should apply to Sanders, who has also been largely absent while campaigning for the Democratic nomination. Reid, who was walking away from reporters, did not answer the question.
