Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

$

Marco Rubio’s Cuba history gets tested

By Becky Bowers
October 24, 2011

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio sold his American success story as he stumped across Florida two years ago.

His parents left Havana in 1959, he told a Panhandle audience, in search of a better life.

He told a Tampa Bay TV station, a Fox Business host and Sean Hannity on Fox News that his parents came from Cuba at the end of the 1950s — when dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Fidel Castro’s revolution. “In 1959,” he told Fox 13 and Fox Business. “In ’58, ’59,” he told Fox News.

By Oct. 21, 2011, the biography on his U.S. Senate website still declared his parents “came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.”

But interviews, documents and news articles in September and October raised doubts.

PolitiFact Florida wanted to know: Did Rubio’s parents come to America “following Fidel Castro’s takeover”?

Our Sources

See individual item

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Becky Bowers
Louise Slaughter
stated on October 9, 2013 an interview on MSNBC:
"Eighty percent of the antibiotics in this country are fed to livestock."
Mostly True
Bloggers
stated on September 27, 2013 blog posts:
"Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month."
Pants on Fire!
Robert Reich
stated on September 22, 2013 a roundtable on ABC’s “This Week”:
Under economic sanctions, "now Iran is suffering 30 percent inflation, 20 percent unemployment."
Mostly True
Betsy McCaughey
stated on September 15, 2013 the New York Post:
"Obamacare will question your sex life."
Pants on Fire!
Bloggers
stated on September 13, 2013 posts on the Internet:
Warren Buffett recently said "Scrap Obamacare and Start All Over."
Pants on Fire!
John Kerry
stated on September 5, 2013 an interview on MSNBC’s “All In”:
Says he "opposed the president’s decision to go into Iraq" in 2003.
Mostly False
Ted Yoho
stated on September 4, 2013 an interview on Fox Business Network:
Chemical weapons have been used "probably 20 times" since the Persian Gulf War.
Mostly False
Ted Cruz
stated on August 10, 2013 a speech to the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa:
Says "President Obama just granted all of Congress an exception" to Obamacare.
False
Ted Deutch
stated on August 1, 2013 a letter with other Florida lawmakers to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius:
Says Florida refused to allow the insurance commissioner to "negotiate lower rates with companies or refuse rates that are too high" under Obamacare.
True

Marco Rubio’s Cuba history gets tested





Donald Trump
stated on May 4, 2026 a White House event:








Donald Trump
stated on April 23, 2026 remarks at the White House:







Chris Wright
stated on April 19, 2026 an interview on CNN's "State of the Union":