Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican often mentioned as a prospective candidate for higher office, is facing questions about his family history after the Washington Post reported Thursday he embellished the story that his parents were forced to flee Cuba after Fidel Castro overthrew the government.
In speeches and on his official Senate website, Rubio has maintained that his parents came to America after Castro, whom he?s described as ?a thug,? took power on New Year?s Day 1959. But naturalization papers and documents reviewed by the Post reveal that Rubio?s parents first arrived in the U.S. and received permanent resident status more than 2? years earlier, in 1956.
Continue ReadingRubio vehemently denied the allegations Thursday night, saying in a statement that while he may have gotten some of the dates wrong, the ?essential facts of my family?s story are completely accurate.?
?To suggest my family?s story is embellished for political gain is outrageous,? he said. ?The dates I have given regarding my family?s history have always been based on my parents? recollections of events that occurred over 55 years ago and which were relayed to me by them more than two decades after they happened.
?I was not made aware of the exact dates until very recently.?
Rubio clarified that after arriving in the U.S., his parents ?had always hoped to one day return to Cuba if things improved and traveled there several times.? In 1961, his mother and older siblings returned to Cuba while my father took care of family matters in the U.S. After just a few weeks, his mother ?fully realized the true nature of the direction Castro was taking Cuba and returned to the United States one month later, never to return.?
?They were exiled from the home country they tried to return to because they did not want to live under communism,? Rubio said. ?That is an undisputed fact and to suggest otherwise is outrageous.?
Asked about the matter Thursday night, Rubio appeared visibly upset, repeatedly invoking his father, Mario Rubio, who died last year in Miami at the age of 83.
?My parents are exiles, which is the core of the story,? Rubio told POLITICO. ?My dad died a year ago unable to return to the nation of his birth. They wanted to go back. They tried to go back. My mom did go back. They came back in 1961 and were never able to go again ? that?s the definition of exile. ? To say otherwise is absurd, really absurd.
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