About

Marco Rubio, born May 28, 1971 (age 44), is a Republican Senator from Miami, Florida who announced his bid to run for the Republican nomination in the 2016 United States Presidential election. Prior to his announcement in April 2015, Rubio has been previously mocked online by critics for his gaffes, most notably for circumventing a question about the age of the Earth during a media interview in 2012, as well as an awkward pause he took to drink from a water bottle while delivering the Republican Party's response to the State of the Union Address in 2013.

Political Career

In January 2000, Rubio was elected to the 111th House District in the Florida House of Representatives, where he was subsequently reelected in 2002, 2004 and 2006. In November 2010, Rubio was elected to the United States Senate.

Online History

"I'm Not a Scientist"

In November of 2012, GQ^[2] published an interview with Rubio, in which he was asked, “How old do you think the Earth is?” In his reply, Rubio flippantly remarked "I'm not a scientist", which subsequently became a way to poke fun at someone’s ignorance or avoidance of a topic.

“I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute among theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist.”

Water Break Video

On February 12th, 2013, Rubio delivered the GOP’s rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. While speaking to the camera, Rubio nervously reached over to drink from a bottle of water before continuing on with the speech. Rubio’s awkward "water break" was broadcast live across the country and an isolated clip of the blooper was subsequently uploaded online by YouTuber dkostv (shown below). Within three years, the video gathered upwards of 2.4 million views and 6,000 comments.

Presidential Run Announcement

On April 13th, 2015, Rubio announced he was joining the 2016 United States presidential race during a press conference in Miami, Florida (shown below).

The same day, Rubio tweeted^[6] that he had joined Snapchat, urging followers to add him on the mobile photo and video messaging service (shown below).

Also on April 13th, Redditor theombudsmen submitted an article criticizing Rubio in a post titled "Marco Rubio is the Most Disingeuous Republican Running for President" to the /r/politics^[5] subreddit, where it gathered more than 1,800 votes (86% upvoted) and 450 comments within 24 hours. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed writer Daniel Kibblesmith^[7] posted a joke tweet rearranging Rubio's name into "Birac Uboma," accumulating upwards of 9,000 favorites and 6,800 retweets over the next day (shown below).

Alabama Billboard Hack

On May 12th, 2016, Andrew Auernheimer tweeted about a security exploit which could allow hackers to put custom images on LED screen billboards. The following day, Twitter user @JohnnyCockring replied to Auernheimer's tweet with photographs of an LED billboard in Alambama displaying photoshopped pictures of Marco Rubio in a homoerotic adult film (shown below).^[8]

That day, Motherboard^[9] published an interview with @JohnnyCockring, who revealed that he added the Rubio photoshop to the billboard's slideshow rotation after seeing Auernheimer's tweet.^[13] Also on May 13th, Auernheimer posted two tweets responding to @JohnnyCockring's hacks (shown below). In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the billboard exploit, including Gawker,^[10] The Daily Dot^[11] and AL.^[12]

Gaddafi Tweet

On February 24th, 2019, Rubio tweeted two pictures of former Libyan leader Omar Gaddafi, one as leader of Libya, and another, graphic image of Gaddafi after he had been deposed by a Western military intervention, found by Libyan rebels, and brutally murdered in public (edited tweet shown below).^[14]

The tweet was interpreted as a thinly-veiled threat to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro,^[15] implying that a western military intervention in Venezuela would lead Maduro to a similar fate. The tweet led to outrage from people who wanted a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Twitter user @TViertor08 tweeted "Many people sincerely just want to provide humanitarian relief to the people of Venezuela. This sick bullshit from General Rubio makes that work much harder," gaining over 280 retweets (shown below, left). User @notjessewalker tweeted "ANTI-INTERVENTIONISTS: The more the U.S. gets involved in Venezuela, the greater the danger of turning the conflict into another Libya. MARCO RUBIO: Hey! Let's have another Libya!", gaining over 90 retweets (shown below, right).

The tweet was covered by The Daily Beast,^[15] Washington Post^[16] and Slate,^[17] who criticized the tweet for handing Maduro a "propaganda victory."

Social Media Presence

As of April 2015, Rubio has gained over 750,000 likes on Facebook,^[1] 718,000 followers on Twitter.^[4]

Search Interest

External References