Sarah Huckabee Sanders (left), the lectern (right).Photo:Steven Ferdman/Getty; Thomas Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP
Steven Ferdman/Getty; Thomas Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP
Arkansas Gov.Sarah Huckabee Sandersis under scrutiny after a blogger discovered that her office used a government credit card to pay $19,000 for a lectern.
Arkansas lawyer Matthew Campbell first uncovered that 41-year-old Sanders' office had purchased the lectern for several thousand dollars — referring to the controversy as #podiumgate on his blog,Blue Hog Report.
The $19,000 lectern.Thomas Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP
Thomas Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP
Last month, Campbell sued Arkansas for access to public records related to Sanders’ travel and security. Days after the suit was filed, Sanderssigned into lawlegislation that would restrict the release of those records.
Sanders argues that the information should be kept private for security purposes, while Campbell and other critics of the governor say the information is needed for government transparency.
Amid the controversy surrounding the release of public records, however, is the lectern that — with its $19,029.25 price tag — cost significantly more than standard lecterns, which run between $200 and $900 online.
According to the AP, Sanders' office received the lectern in August, and the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for its purchase on Sept. 14.
There’s another twist, too — courtesy of an anonymous whistleblower, who has claimed via an attorney that Sanders’ office altered records to cover up the purchase of the lectern, theArkansas Advocatereports.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, then the White House press secretary, briefs members of the media.Evan Vucci/AP
Sanders' office says the money used to reimburse the state government for the lectern had been earmarked for the governor’s inauguration. The governor herself — who took office as the 47th governor of Arkansas andthe state’s first female governorin January — has swatted down any notion of impropriety related to the lectern.
“People want to manufacture a controversy where there isn’t one,” Sanders told reporters this week, per theArkansas Democrat-Gazette. “But this is something the state’s been reimbursed for, and I think there are some people who are always going to be angry and always looking for something to complain about and that’s what they’re picking for right now.”
Sanders added that she wasn’t entirely sure why the price tag was so high, though she said the lectern came with “a number of features.”
“I’m happy to connect you with the vendor that builds and puts these together, but it’s not really my area of specialty,” Sanders, who served asDonald Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019, told reporters. “I’m focused on the things I’m good at. Building podiums is probably not one of them.”
source: people.com
