Senator has year’s worst voting attendance record, but he says many missed decisions ‘won’t mean anything’ and he is running for president to change that

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has defended his common and much-criticised absences from Senate business, saying: “Voting is not the only part of the Senate job.”

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Speaking to CNN in an interview broadcast on Sunday, the Florida senator also deflected the suggestion that his own statement this week, that federal employees who did not perform in their roles should be fired, could be turned back on him.

Rubio has the worst voting attendance record in the Senate this year. According to an NBC News analysis released at the beginning of October, he had missed 59 votes since declaring his run for president in April, or 42%. He has missed votes since.



Other senators running for the White House had missed fewer by NBC’s count: Lindsey Graham had missed 39, Rand Paul four, Ted Cruz 57 and Bernie Sanders seven.

“Everyone needs to run their own campaign,” Rubio said on CNN. “I can tell you that in the history of presidential politics, when they’ve been running for politics in the Senate they’ve missed votes … Actually, this is lower than what other people have missed.

“I’m running for president so the votes they take in the Senate are actually meaningful again. A lot of these votes won’t mean anything. They’re not going to pass and even if they did, the president would veto it.”

Earlier this month, Rubio missed a vote on defence spending, which was expected to be tight, because he was campaigning in New Hampshire.

CNN’s interviewer, Jamie Gangel, mentioned Rubio’s remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, in which she said he said “federal workers who don’t show up should be fired”. At that time Rubio had missed seven votes in one month, the Washington Post reported.

“That’s not what I said,” Rubio countered. “I said federal workers that aren’t doing their jobs, that are not performing at their jobs, should be able to be fired, should be held accountable for not performing.”

Asked by Gangel if his “not showing up” meant he was not performing – “not doing [his] job by voting” – Rubio said: “Not true, not true.”



He added: “Voting is not the only part of the Senate job. I mean, the most important thing a senator does is constituent service. We’re still involved in looking out for Florida’s issues.”

Attacks on Rubio’s Senate attendance record have come from the right – the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump – and left. American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic-leaning political action committee, recently released a “missing” poster featuring his face.

Rubio also said he was regularly briefed on Senate business, particularly as a member of the intelligence committee.

“We do all the intelligence briefings; I was just there this Tuesday,” he said. “I got fully briefed and caught up on everything that’s happening in the world. I’m fully aware, we have a staffer that’s assigned to intelligence, we get constant briefings.”

He then repeated: “I think votes, of course, are important, but unfortunately, too many of them today are not meaningful.”