Capitol Police investigating threat against Rubio

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The U.S. Capitol Police are investigating a threat against first-term Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has risen to national prominence in recent weeks as he has been discussed as a possible running mate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

"We are working with local law enforcement in Miami. USCP currently has an active open investigation re: the report of a threat against Sen. Rubio," Lieutenant Kimberly Schneider, a spokesperson for the Capitol Police, said in an email. Rubio lives in West Miami.

The FBI told CBS News it is aware of the threat. West Miami Police Chief Nelson Andreu told Miami CBS station WFOR that the Capitol Police vetted the threat and determined it to be credible.

The Capitol Police would not discuss the nature of the threat. Rubio's office referred all questions to the Capitol Police.

The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reported earlier that the threat was deemed credible enough to merit police protection, and that Rubio was not receiving security protection, though the Capitol Police did not confirm that report.

The threats are not the only reason Rubio, the nation's most prominent Hispanic Republican, is in the news today. A new biography of the 40-year-old conservative darling reportedly asserts that Rubio's grandfather was ordered to leave the United States because he came from Cuba without a visa, but did not do so. (Last year, Rubio was accused of having "embellished the facts" about his family history, having falsely suggested that his parents were driven from Cuba when Fidel Castro took power. Rubio called that claim "outrageous.")

Rubio is set to give a foreign policy speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington today, where, according to his prepared remarks, he plans to say he disagrees "with the way in which the current administration has chosen to engage" with the rest of the world.

"For while there are few global problems we can solve by ourselves, there are virtually no global problems that can be solved without us," he plans to say. "In confronting the challenges of our time, there are more nations than ever capable of contributing, but there is still only one that is capable of leading."

Rubio has proposed a pared-down version of the "DREAM Act" put forth by Democrats, which would eventually give qualified children brought to the United States illegally a path to citizienship. Romney, who tacked right on immigration during the GOP primary, has not endorsed Rubio's plan, though he has said his party faces "doom" if it cannot win over Latino voters.

Rubio has said he is not interested in the vice presidential slot, though that's not uncommon among politicians who later accept it.

[BuckeyeChuck]

The right should have a great day with his name, Marco vs Barack
Rubio vs Obama. You know what i mean, can he really be American with a name like that?

[cannuc]

A Vice-president born in cuba can't be president..his views and opinions regarding his country will interfere with the interests of ours.