Lewinsky mocks Rubio: ‘Blaming the intern is so 1990s’

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky mocked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Twitter Thursday morning after the senator criticized an intern for writing a Politico article stating that he was “walking back” his comments on the GOP tax law.

In a tweet, Lewinsky wrote that “blaming the intern is so 1990’s” in response to Rubio’s tweet claiming he “did not back down” on his criticism of the recently-passed GOP tax bill.

blaming the intern is so 1990’s. https://t.co/6CGPERpNqx

— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) May 3, 2018

Lewinsky, whose affair with then-President Clinton led to his impeachment by the House, now works as an anti-bullying advocate.

The tweet from Lewinsky came after Rubio sparred with the news outlet over whether or not he had “walked back” his comments criticizing the GOP’s December bill to reform the tax code.

The Florida Republican, who voted for the bill, told The Economist in an interview published last week that “there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.”

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In a later op-ed in the National Review, Rubio added that the bill could have put “less focus on cutting the statutory corporate tax rate, but been at least equally focused on investment, wages, and the American worker.”

But the Florida senator also added that “overall, the Republican tax-cut bill has been good for Americans,” prompting Politico’s suggestion that he had “walk[ed] back” his earlier remarks. Several other news outlets and reporters also suggested that Rubio’s op-ed was a walk-back.

Rubio, however, took issue with Politico’s suggestion, writing that he had actually “doubled down” on his earlier criticism of the bill.

“Although written by intern at Politico, this article is a reminder of how difficult it can be to discuss public policy in political press. Not only did I not back down on tax cut, I doubled down & added detail for rationale,” he tweeted.

On Wednesday evening, Rubio’s chief of staff, Michael Needham, said that “the senator’s op-ed — articulating views he has always held — was misrepresented by some as a change of position.”

Rubio’s office also released portions of his interview with The Economist that were not included in the magazine’s story and make points that are similar to the arguments in his National Review op-ed.

In the recording, Rubio says he still thinks “there are a lot of net positives of tax reform, let there be no doubt.” He said that small businesses will expand and make new investments because of the law, but those changes are mainly due to the bill’s “immediate expensing” provision rather than the cut in the corporate tax rate.

He also said he had “no problem” with cutting the corporate tax rate, but felt that it could have been cut by a percentage point or two less in order to provide more tax relief for working families. The final tax bill cut the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Rubio has taken shots at the GOP tax plan before. Shortly after it passed last year, the Republican senator told reporters that the bill “probably went too far on [helping] corporations.”