Marco Rubio allegedly spent more than $1.2 million of taxpayer money to attend his son’s football games | Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, has become a superfan of the University of Florida football team, spending more than $1.2 million of taxpayer money on frequent personal travel to watch them play, claims a report released Wednesday.

Ethics watchdogs have questioned the need for the nation’s top diplomat to commute so often between Washington, D.C., and Gainesville, where his son Anthony plays running back for the team known as the Gators.

A Washington Post investigation found that Rubio had attended at least 10 games over the past two seasons, including five this fall, and that of 23 total trips to Gainesville aboard military planes, 15 were “personal” in nature.

The newspaper said that although Rubio is barred from flying commercially, because of security protocols that also cover the secretary of defense and the directors of the FBI and CIA, his use of government transportation “appears vastly superior to that of his predecessors.”

Using rates published by the Department of Defense, listing the hourly cost of different types of military aircraft, the Post calculated that the flights alone cost more than $1.2 million.

Most recently, on November 7, Rubio arrived in Gainesville aboard an Air Force C-37, a plane frequently used for VIP transport of high-ranking government officials, and was seen on the sideline as the Gators lost 23-7 to Oklahoma. Anthony Rubio played no role in the game.

Rubio, in a statement to the Post, defended his prolific trips to Florida, which often include flights from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Homestead Air Reserve Base, near Miami, and a secondary flight from there to Gainesville.

“I have tried and will continue to try to participate in as many events that are important to me personally and to my family,” he said.

Statistics, however, show that Anthony Rubio, a senior and third of his four children, has played in just four competitive games in his four years in college, including two this season. According to ESPN, he has a total of 14 carries in his college career for a combined total of 75 yards and just one touchdown.

Civil servants using military transport are required to reimburse the government for the equivalent of an economy fare ticket for their travel, which would in any case be significantly higher than the actual cost of the trip.

Rubio and the State Department declined to say how much he repaid to the state treasury, the Post said.

Cynthia Brown, senior ethics adviser at the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), told the Post that Rubio’s trip seemed “more of an optics glitch than a violation” but said it merited further scrutiny.

“If this trip becomes something that undermines the integrity of your department, are you really taking care of the taxpayers’ money like you are obligated to do as a public servant? » she said.

“It’s something that I think is really important to shine a light on.”

Brown noted that while Rubio doesn’t do anything “technically inappropriate,” he is the sole arbiter of how often and how far he travels.

The Post, citing two former government officials, reported that Antony Blinken, who was Joe Biden’s secretary of state, took personal trips on government planes “only a few times a year.”

Another Biden official, then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, was investigated by the department’s internal watchdog for his use of government planes for personal travel after a complaint from Rubio, who was then a Republican senator from Florida.

“American taxpayers deserve assurance that their tax dollars are not being wasted by the highest officials in government,” Rubio wrote in his request for review. The inspector general ultimately cleared Buttigieg, who made eight trips at a total cost of $59,000, of any wrongdoing.

Dylan Johnson, deputy secretary of state, said in a post on X Wednesday that comparing Rubio and Buttigieg was “silly.”

“The Secretary of State (like POTUS, VP, SecWar and others) is REQUIRED to use military aircraft to maintain access to secure communications at all times and comply with continuity of government protocols,” Johnson wrote.

“Pete Buttigieg (was) not a mandatory user of military aircraft.”

Johnson said Rubio would continue to use public transportation and reimburse the government “for all personal travel.”

“(He) makes absolutely no apologies and will continue to attend as many family events as his job allows – including his son’s football games for his senior year of college football,” he said.

The Guardian has contacted Crew and the State Department for comment.