Based on a Washington Post report, the Democratic group American Bridge 21st Century has released a web ad that accuses Sen. Marco Rubio of embellishing his family history regarding when they left Cuba. There's some dispute about the depth of his embellishments. Here's our take and the Republican-blogger take.
The group does a good job unearthing evidence of Rubio repeatedly saying his parents came to the United States in 1959, which would make them look like refugees from Fidel Castro's revolution. They came in 1956, before the revolution. His official Senate biography, as the Post pointed out, got this fact wrong.
The attack goes a bit astray, though, when it subtly suggests Rubio was lying for calling his parents 'exiles." They were. Those who live away from home for a prolonged period are by definition exiles. His parents did that. Though they returned to Cuba briefly after they left, the Rubios decided they wanted to live in the US, not in Cuba, which soon devolved into a Soviet-style totalitarian state.
Regardless of whether Rubio was sloppy or lying, the story now takes on a life of its own. The Washington press corps reflexively backs its hometown paper, and Rubio's a vice-presidential shortlister. The fact that he got his official Senate biography wrong allows all the other claims about embellishments look more accurate than they may be.
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