Halperin and Heilemann Hype NYT Articles on Rubio as ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Legit’
HALPERIN: “The New York Times has shoved Marco Rubio down deep into the barrel. There’s the $80,000 boat, the stone pavers paid with the Florida Republican Party credit card, the liquidated retirement account, and of course, we can’t forget the traffic violations also reported by The Times a few days ago. John, The Times is on it. Is this line of inquiry about Hastert’s – Rubio’s assets, liabilities, and purchases legit and is it, for Rubio, politically dangerous?”
HEILEMANN: “Yes and yes, Mark, would be my answer to that question. I think it is legitimate in the sense that you got a Republican here who, like many Republicans, has campaigned against profligacy and talked the way that the government wastes money. You got to look at the guy’s finances. He’s a young guy on the scene, looking at how he has spent his money, how he has misspent his money, how he’s managed his money. Totally legitimate and in this case, this story – I mean, there are so – as you just read through them – so many lines in paragraphs that are open to additional reporting, additional digging. There’s a lot of danger here, I think, for Marco Rubio.”
HALPERIN: “Look, people should not treat this like it’s some sort of indictment. It is totally legitimate to look at any candidate’s personal finances, particularly someone like Rubio who has lived an unorthodox life in terms of how he’s made his money and how he’s spent it, but I do – and I do think, as you said, that there’s more to come here. People who have covered him in Florida know that The Times didn’t break ground, but they had some new details and there are more to come and more requests for public documents, and some of the things that aren’t quite adding up our being looked at more and I think people on Rubio’s side who are trying to say this is an illegitimate story or people who say this doesn’t matter to be president – first of all, the reality is it’s going to be looked at and second, I think most people would these are perfectly legitimate questions.”
HEILEMANN: “I mean, look, first, we will talk about the defense Rubio’s campaign is putting forward in an second – in a moment, but I’ve got to say, you know, if you think about just the things that a lot of voters will wonder about – you know, the fact that Rubio – there are a couple of instances in this story and these are things that have come up before, but again, I think a lot of voters will wonder about them. The houses that he bought with no money down. How exactly he got those mortgages, why those mortgages came to him. There are lot questions, I mean, this story raises way more questions than it answers and that’s why I think it is such a problem for Marco Rubio.”
