Marco Rubio may have embellished family history
Marco Rubio: did the potential Republican VP candidate lie about his family's Cuban history in order to appeal to his Floridian constituency?
Marco Rubio speaks after winning his Senate bid in Coral Gables, Fla. Nov. 2, 2010. Rubio is being accused of stretching the truth about his family's Cuban history.
Lynne Sladky/AP/File
In Florida, where Cuba and Fidel Castro can be highly combustible political issues, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is defending himself against allegations he embellished his family's story in saying his parents left the island after Castro came to power.
So far, prominent members of the Cuban American community are standing by him, including the head of one of Miami's oldest and most respected exile groups, who said Friday that he is willing to give the rising GOP star and tea-party favorite a pass.
The 40-year-old freshman senator has always publicly identified with the exile community and has a strong following within it. In a campaign ad last year, he said: "As the son of exiles, I understand what it means to lose the gift of freedom." Rubio's biography on his Senate website previously said he was "born in Miami to Cuban-born parents who come to America following Fidel Castro's takeover." It has been changed to say Rubio "was born in Miami in 1971 to Cuban exiles who first arrived in the United States in 1956."
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