2y ago

A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit

Sarah Huckabee Sanders rose to national prominence in part during her time at the lectern as White House press secretary, but the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for the Arkansas governor is undergoing scrutiny and prompting claims that records about it have been altered.

A legislative panel next week will take up a lawmaker’s request for an audit to review the purchase of the lectern, which was bought in June for $19,029.25 with a state credit card. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.

“From my experience, where we’re at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in,” Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey, who requested the audit, said. “Everyone knows them, they do their work, they’re very thorough and then they produce a detailed report that comes to the Legislature through an open committee.”

56 comments

Man they got fucking robbed. Amazon has it for only $944 The Amazon review though...
If you are concerned about wasteful spending I highly recommend going with this price from Amazon
EDIT: Yes, I'm pretty sure they paid $1,000 for it and then reported $19,000 pocketing the difference. As someone who has lived their whole life in Tennessee (and has worked for a period of time in State Government), that's Southern politics 101. Days where they aren't fleecing the taxpayer are few and far between here in the Southeastern US.
- Brent ☆☆☆☆☆
  Perfect at home in Arkansas or with my friends in Paris
  Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023
  Don't let your husband or state know that this thing is under $1,000 because it could go for $19,000-$20,000 EASILY! It's the perfect accessory for "governing", photoshopping, and fraud. Me and the gal pals really enjoyed this from afar while we were in Paris, France. 10/10
  
  Brent knows what's up.
- The fact that this is on Amazon for under a grand is hilarious. These people are absolute morons. I hope they get nailed and the truth comes out.
  
  They will not. They absolutely own Arkansas and nothing will happen this year, or the next 50 due to their corruption.
- Wow... fucking blatant corruption. Just gross.
  
  Yeah straight up corruption, lying and stealing. And will she ever be punished for her blatant abuse of power? Nope. Obviously this should ban her from ever being anywhere near public office but that won't ever happen and they'll continue to do it until there are consequences. I feel like I repeat that a lot nowadays but people get away with too much ridiculous shit these days and are never punished for it. George Santos anybody? How the fuck is he still in office? We need some fucking standards otherwise the country will continue to go to shit.
- They didn't pocket the difference. Gov Sanders used state money to go on vacation and this is the cover.
  
  That's what "pocketing the difference" is. She took the state money she said was used for the lectern and used it for personal purposes.
- lol, yhgtbsm. Unbelievable.
  A ~$900 lectern for $19k. Fraud in broad daylight. I can’t call it “skimming off the top” because it’s so upside down.
The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.
Is this typical for the party to reimburse the state for an elected official? If it was reimbursed from campaign funds, wouldn't that be covered by campaign finance laws? Sounds like either the Republican Party is trying to cover it up by reimbursing for it, or they're doing weird accounting to get through a loophole of campaign finance laws.
- It's a coverup. There only defense is "we made an oopsy. This was supposed to be bought with private funds and now it is after it became a clear case of grift. Nothing to see here, tee hee."
  
  Is there ever a time where it is above board for these types of reimbursements to happen? Seems like it should be something illegal already, but maybe there's something I'm missing?
I'll be honest.. I only clicked on this article because I was curious as to what a $19,000 lectern looks like. 🤷
- Same. Thought maybe some local woodworker produced a beautiful lectern.
  No, turns out it's from amazon with some spray paint and Arkansas is just being Arkansas.
- You'll have to keep looking because this thing was <$1K on Amazon
- Turns out, extremely yonic
Sanders' entire job at the White House involved lying to the public on a regular basis. Is it any wonder she leveraged the same skill set at her next job?
So is this how Republicans are supposedly such responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars?
Sheesh, she's even giving the Pentagon a run for their money (no pun intended):
These Toilet Seat Lids Aren’t Gold-Plated but They Cost $14,000
- Working as intended. Having the government overpay tenfold for goods and services is neoliberals favourite method of converting public funds into private profit.
  
  Lord knows when I think of SHS and The Pentagon I think of neolibs.
  
  I used to work in aerospace and we had a few government customers. Every single government part was sold to a contractor who then flipped it to the government for like 10x what they paid for it.
  It was real annoying when they needed parts for old aircraft with deprecated specifications/components that were no longer available because the contractors had no engineering staff so we couldn't ask them for clarification on which parts/specs to use beyond standard military supercessions which sometimes had no suitable replacements.
Some say money laundering??
- Money laundering is taking dirty money and making it clean, this is taking clean money and making it dirty, in someones dirty corrupt pocket
- A lot of people are saying it. Very smart people.
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Haha so I guess "bold conservative reforms" is their new code phrase for hatred and intolerance.
- And "we had to buy a $19k lectern...it was to good a price to pass up"
The party of fiscal responsibility!
I can’t believe someone paid $19,000 for that ugly piece of junk.
- They didn't. This is graft in action
  
  Someone paid $20.28 for that and $6.99 for a rattlecan of metallic blue, and then charged the other $19,000.00 for "labor". (I'm optimistically assuming they paid tax on the store bought items)
That's the state that just wrecked child labor laws, right?
It should be removed one day and replaced with four empty boxes and a big lots desktop microphone.
- 4 boxes yes. However instead of microphone jut buy/rent a good wireless lapel mic system. It is what nearly every presenter wants anyway.
lol literally nothing will happen because literally nothing ever does. Everything is farce now.
Republicunts. The original welfare queens.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The lectern’s purchase was first uncovered by Matthew Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has sued State Police for withholding records he had requested about Sanders’ travel and security.
Days after Campbell filed his initial suit, Sanders called a special legislative session and proposed broad exemptions to the state’s open records law.
Sanders signed into law a measure restricting the public’s access to her travel and security records after she and lawmakers backed off more widespread exemptions that faced backlash from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives.
According to Mars’ letter, the interference includes the governor’s office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Hickey’s request also asks for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month.
The original article contains 745 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
That thing is hideous.
- As befits.
When you elect stinky fish, don't be surprised when it starts to rot. Let's be real, she should be nowhere in sight of a position of power.
Ok I thought Lizz Truss' podium was expensive.
I mean, it is made out of wood. Have you seen lumber prices?
That wood grain on the front though.
- It's one ugly-ass lectern - but I still wood.
Structural integrity and strength is required to support her gunt
- Hopefully it's made with steel I-beams.
Arkansas could have had an Urban Planner with a Master's Degree as their Governor but he was black and Republicans aren't Racist.

56 comments