Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has reportedly angered a Tea Party activist in Florida because he has not followed through on meeting with activists after Rubio personally called the Florida activist to ask him to set up a meeting with local conservatives.
Rubio’s support among conservatives and Republicans has plummeted after he championed and helped write the Senate’s immigration bill. Rubio is spending much of the August recess trying to rehabilitate his image by railing against Obamacare and the national debt.
In addition, aware of the anger that will be directed at him if he discusses immigration issues in public, Rubio is instead trying to “reconnect” with conservatives far away from public venues in August.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, “Rubio is keeping two schedules”–a public one where he rails against Obamacare and a private one “where he seeks to reconnect with grass roots conservative activists who have questions — and some outrage — over his involvement in immigration reform.”
About six weeks ago, though, Rubio reportedly “called tea party leader Tim Curtis in Tampa and asked him to set up a meeting of activists.”
“I thought it was a robocall. Like many calls it started off with, ‘Hello this is Sen. Macro Rubio.’ There was a pregnant pause and he said, ‘Mr. Curtis?’ Curtis told the Times. ‘This is Sen. Marco Rubio, I’d like to talk with you.'”
Curtis said he attended a recent grassroots meeting where Rubio spoke in Orlando, but Rubio has not followed through with his promise to meet with grassroots activists in Curtis’s area. A Rubio spokesman told Breitbart News that Rubio’s office would not comment on the senator’s private phone conversations when asked if Rubio had indeed asked Curtis to arrange a meeting with grassroots conservatives.
The Tampa conservative said even though he disagreed with Rubio’s position on immigration, he had to own the bill that he championed instead of hiding from it. Curtis acknowledged that Rubio spoke “passionately” about why he supported comprehensive immigration reform in Orlando.
That is why Rubio’s failure to follow through “with plans to meet in Tampa” with grassroots activists has been disappointing to him.
“He failed to do that. That’s not a good thing, because I’ve got a big mouth,” Curtis told the Times.
Rubio has hardly spoken on the issue of immigration reform after being the most prominent supporter of the bill before it passed the Senate.
The Times reports that at a “gathering of 300 people in Sarasota last week for a talk by outspoken immigration opponent Dennis Michael Lynch,” Rubio was resoundingly booed when his name was mentioned. Rubio was not present at that rally, but activists may show up to any public rallies Rubio may hold on immigration.
An activist at the rally said when Rubio’s name was mentioned,”They booed, they hissed, there were catcalls.”
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