A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit
A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is facing scrutiny over the purchase of a $19,000 lectern and the handling or records surrounding it.
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.”
Arkansas native here. Word on the street is SHS paid for a vacation for a friend using state money. When people started asking questions, suddenly a new lectern appeared, and her government was shielded from FOIA requests. Thats why people are calling for an audit.
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Hickey was pushed out as state Senate leader, he has an axe to grind and isn't afraid of a primary.
I've been slacking... I should've posted this over in /c/arkansas long ago.
Ah, yup, there it is. Good old fashioned embezzlement.
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
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.
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. 🤷
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.
Why on earth would that cost 20 grand? That thing is ugly as fuck
You sound like someone that doesn't know shit about fancy lecterns.
This one isn't that fancy though. I've seen some hand carved that are clearly more than that, but this doesn't those expensive features.
Of course it costs 20 grand, look at all that embellishment!
Sorry, I meant embezzlement.
The made in china version is $1000. Make it custom in the US with real hardwood and we are more like $5000. We can see that has a mic installed, which is $500 for a good mic (A $10 mic would work okay, but the $500 does sound better and isn't unreasonable), which we will pair with electronics to turn the audio into digital for another $500. While we are at it we will build in a computer with a presenters display all connected to the building video system - another $5000.
I'm trying to be generous by using the highest reasonable costs and the most complex feature set. I still can only come up with $11k.
$10 would work ok but $500 not unreasonable
It's just 50x the price to go from 'okay' to 'good', fuck it why not 200x to get the 'great' model? It's only taxpayers money!
Shit, if I ran this country, everyone would be using $10 ikea end tables stacked 2x tall for their 'I'm important and need a fancy stand'. The microphone is your voice being louder. Want a chair, that's not in the budget sorry. You so much as take an Uber to a press conference and that's also coming out of your own pocketbook. Ain't showed up on Thursday? You ain't getting paid for Thursday. Govt shutdown? Oh I'm sorry, you thought you were getting paid for not doing your job?
But no, no, gotta pamper the idiots who think they matter. Damn country is fucked 8 ways from Sunday.
I could see a handmade, hardwood lectern by a local artisan reaching that price point, and I think that's totally reasonable for something that could be used for more than a century. Bonus, you're giving back to the residents of your state by buying local.
But nah, this thing looks like cheaper garbage than some of the furniture I owned in college. $900 is a stretch.
It’s called money laundering.
They bought it on Temu. She wanted to shop like a billionaire.
I'm not a lectern aficionado, but I feel very confident agreeing with you that this particular lectern is offensively ugly.
As a amateur furniture maker, I could totally figure out how to make this thing cost $20k. It'd look so much cooler than this shit though....
“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"
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.
The party of fiscal responsibility!
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?
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Arkansas could have had an Urban Planner with a Master's Degree as their Governor but he was black and Republicans aren't Racist.
Structural integrity and strength is required to support her gunt
Hopefully it's made with steel I-beams.
That wood grain on the front though.
It's one ugly-ass lectern - but I still wood.