Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's so-called "luxury speed boat" that he purchased while in the midst of debt, as detailed
in a report by The New York Times, is really nothing more than a modest offshore fishing boat.
It is true that the Florida Republican did pay $80,000 for the boat, but
Politico is reporting that it is far from the "luxury speedboat" cited by the Times.
The boat Rubio purchased is an EdgeWater 245CC Deep-V Center Console, Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told Politico. The boat maker says that the boat was designed with "safety-minded family boaters and avid anglers" in mind.
The image of a "$80,000 luxury boat" in Miami, where billionaires flaunt multi-million dollar yachts, seems questionable, Politico noted.
This so-called "extravagant purchase" was described by the Times as a splurge, which he made after receiving an $800,000 advance on a book.
"At the time, Mr. Rubio confided to a friend that it was a potentially inadvisable outlay that he could not resist," the Times wrote. "The 24-foot boat, he said, fulfilled a dream."
Rubio's spokesman Alex Conant
told USA Today that "of course, if he was worth millions, the Times would then attack him for being too rich, like they did to Mitt Romney.