Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz warned reporters Wednesday not to compare Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s voting record with then-Sen. Barack Obama’s during his 2007 presidential run.
Lately, the DNC has been especially critical of Rubio, a rising Republican presidential candidate. The committee released a statement Tuesday describing the Florida senator as “full of empty rhetoric and policies that will fail our country,” and accused him of abandoning his responsibilities as a member of the U.S. Senate during a call with reporters Wednesday.
“Rubio will be [in Nevada] on a three-day trip instead of doing what he’s paid to do, which is vote in the Senate,” Wasserman Schultz said during the call.
“It is insulting for voters to ask for a promotion when you are not even doing the job you are paid to do right now,” added Roberta Lange, who serves as chairwoman of Nevada’s Democratic Party.
Asked how Rubio’s absence from the Senate during the current election cycle differed from Obama’s in 2007, neither woman acknowledged the similarities. In 2007, Obama reportedly missed 80 percent of all Senate votes during a two-month period while campaigning for president.
“I think most Americans understand that if you’re running for president, you’re going to have to be in Iowa, New Hampshire and you’re not going to make all the votes and they give candidates slack,” Stu Rothenberg, a conservative political analyst, said at the time.
Wasserman Schultz appeared to disagree.
“What we’re focused on is the here and now; Obama isn’t running in this election, Rubio is,” the DNC chairwoman told the Washington Examiner.
“It’s really about Rubio and what he’s saying and so he and Barack Obama are not running in the same election, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to contrast that,” Wasserman Schultz added.
She continued, “He’s showed up for less than 50 percent of the votes that have been held. When you decide to run for higher office, you are not absolved of the job you are elected to do.”
Upon being pressed by another reporter on the same topic, the Florida congresswoman admitted, “Certainly anyone running for office is going to have to find a balance.”
“But you don’t just get to throw over your responsibilities just because you’re seeking higher office,” she said.
Shortly after the call ended, a DNC spokesman forwarded a video clip to participating members of the press featuring remarks made by Rubio in April.
“If you don’t want to vote on things, don’t run for the Senate,” he says in the clip. “If you don’t want to vote on things, don’t run for office. Be a columnist. Get a talk show.”
“A lot of the work we’re doing in the Senate isn’t going to go anywhere unless we have the right president and that’s why I’m running for president,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, according to NBC News.
