Rand Paul contrasts himself with Marco Rubio: 'I show up for work'
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sharply criticized his colleague and fellow presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in an interview Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. He harped on Rubio's absence from the Senate on Friday, when the chamber passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill.
"The difference between Marco Rubio and I is I show up for work," Paul said. "He's missed about a third to a half of his votes this year," Paul said. "We had the biggest vote of the whole year, voting on a trillion dollars' worth of spending, and he didn’t show up."
Paul, who also called on Rubio to step down from the Senate or give his pay back to taxpayers, is basically right on the numbers. GovTrack statistics from 2015 show Rubio has missed about 35 percent of roll call votes, compared to Paul's roughly 6 percent.
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Watch Paul's full interview below. Julie Kliegman
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.