Florida Sen. Marco Rubio responded to Donald Trump’s barbs relating to his personal finances by pointing out that Trump businesses have gone through four bankruptcies in the past.
“I’m proud of my background,” Rubio said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Friday. “I’m proud of where I come from.”
Trump has criticized Rubio’s use of a Florida Republican Party credit card.
“I just find it ironic that Donald Trump has had four bankruptcies in his businesses, and who is he to attack anybody on finances? I mean, I just find that ironic,” said Rubio.
“But we’ll move. I’m proud of my background, I’m proud of where I come from, I’m proud of what we have been able to achieve,” he said. “Today, my family and I, we have one debt in the world, which is the mortgage on my home. But I grew up having to earn everything. I had student loans, for example, because I couldn’t pay for my school.”
“Let me tell you, this is why I am so passionate about these issues. A lot of what Americans are facing on a daily basis I faced 10 or 15 years ago, in some cases five or eight years ago. And that’s why I am so passionate to fight on behalf of the people in this county that are struggling. Because I know what it feels like. I grew up paycheck to paycheck.”
Rubio then said that Trump’s criticism on his personal finances is actually a criticism of all Americans who did “nothing wrong but lost the value of their home.”
Friday, the Washington Post fact checker Michelle Ye Hee Lee said the issue is “a mountain’s been made out of molehill” and wasn’t really a scandal at all.
WATCH:
Follow Steve on Twitter