Marco Rubio

About

Marco Rubio 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).