The office of Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (R) has issued a statement about her trip to the Super Bowl following a TPM report that highlighted the high costs of her tickets and the ethical questions raised by her big night at the big game. According to a written statement Sanders’ spokesperson, Alexa Henning, provided to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette newspaper, the governor and her family of five “were in the upper level, not a suite” as they cheered on the victorious Kansas City Chiefs.
Sanders is a documented serial liar (e.g., 2019; 2023) with a continuing tradition of sketchy practice, secrecy and lack of transparency as governor so, in the absence of verified supporting documents and unaffiliated third-party testimony, nothing her spokesperson says can be treated with anything other than extreme skepticism. Which is to say
I’m sure the sick fuck, when he was fouling the White House, said to her more than once “See? You can steal anything. No one is going to do anything about it. Stealing makes the dumb fuckers who buy the red hats like us more.”
It was one of the few things he said that wasn’t a lie.
The statement makes it clear that the family tickets were paid for from public funds, otherwise it wouldn’t have been necessary to deny it for the security team.
Perhaps the taxpayers of Arkansas should allow her to purchase a gate she can use for these and future scandals, just as an investment, and to go with the lectern.
Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R), one of the committee’s co-chairs, told TPM there are no plans to audit Sanders’ Chiefs trips.
Rep: “You will have to force us to look at the evidence the governor was dumb enough to post on social media. And even then, we probably won’t see signs of corruption because we too want to grift from our office…”
Henning’s statement repays parsing. No taxpaper money was used, which isn’t really the issue (except maybe for the security detail). The issue is whether she and her husband paid for the tickets and various perks (also, their transportation, hotel, and meal expenses) or the family received them as gifts. (And who paid for the security details transportation, hotel, meals, and tickets?)
Her dear,close, personal friends just wanted her companionship for the big game. I mean, if there were anything untoward going on, a luxury motor coach (don’t call it an RV!) would be involved.
All true, but I suspect the very specific “no taxpayer dough on tickets for security” could be technically true but meant to gloss over a LOT of other inappropriate taxpayer funded items and services. The question is how much of the media decides they don’t need to ask any followup questions.
