Washington Post Investigation Puts Rubio's Florida Football Trips at More Than $1.2 Million
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spent more than $1.2 million in taxpayer money on frequent personal trips to watch the University of Florida football team, according to an investigation by The Washington Post published on Wednesday, 11 November. The paper arrived at the figure by calculating the cost of the military flights, using published Defense Department rates for the cost per hour of military aircraft.
The investigation found that Rubio made 23 trips to Gainesville on military aircraft, and that 15 of those trips were personal in nature. It also found he attended at least 10 Gators games in the last two seasons, including five this fall, according to The Guardian's report on the investigation.
Rubio cannot fly commercially. Security protocols that also cover the secretary of defense and the directors of the FBI and CIA bar him from doing so. His Florida trips often follow a set route: a flight from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, then a second flight to Gainesville.
The trips have a family connection. Rubio's son Anthony is a walk-on running back for the Gators, meaning he joined the squad without a athletic scholarship. Anthony, a senior and the third of the secretary's four children, has played in four games in four years at the university, two of them this season. He did not play on 7 November, when Rubio arrived in Gainesville aboard an Air Force C-37 and was seen on the sidelines as Florida lost 23-7 to Oklahoma. His college career includes 14 carries for 75 yards and one touchdown.
Officials who travel on military transport are required to reimburse the government the equivalent of an economy-fare ticket. Rubio and the State Department declined to say how much he has repaid for the travel.
The Post also compared Rubio's travel with that of his predecessors. Citing two former government officials, the paper reported that former Secretary of State Antony Blinken took personal trips on government aircraft only a couple of times a year.
