Florida Sen. Marco Rubio —
a notorious Senate-vote no-show — skipped another one Friday, this time on the
massive government spending bill that he'd bitterly criticized.
In an interview with CBS News, the GOP presidential candidate told CBS News that, "In essence, not voting for it is a vote against it."
All four other presidential contenders in the upper chamber showed up to vote: GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Democratic candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, all all voted against the legislation. South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham backed the bill.
"Votes like Friday's are why Marco is running for president," his campaign spokesman, Alex Conant,
tells the Washington Post.
"Leaders in Washington crafted this trillion-dollar spending bill in secret, and unveiled it during the debate on Tuesday night. Marco had barely 48 hours to review over 2,000 pages of spending. Marco has consistently voted against those sorts of bills, but the truth is that it's not going to change until we elect a new president. That's why Marco is meeting voters in Iowa today."
Rubio, whose was in Iowa and Missouri for public events, the Post reports, issued a statement blasting the spending bill.
"Washington's leadership has created another massive spending bill in secret and rammed it through Congress, hoping that the American people don't notice or have become numb to this kind of business as usual," the statement read, the Post reports.
The Hill notes
Rubio's missed vote comes after he suggested he could use procedural tactics to try to slow down the legislation, telling Fox News, "We should use every procedural aspect that we have to slow it down and perhaps force some changes on these things we've been discussing."
The Florida Republican has missed more than half of the Senate's votes since October, the Hill reports.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.