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Trump Cabinet Secretary Chartered $25,000 Plane for Trip That Could Have Cost $46

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Secretary Tom Price Just Last Week Spent $60,000 on Private Planes at Taxpayer Expense

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last week spent $25,000 of the taxpayers’ money on a private chartered 30-seat plane for a trip from DC to Philadelphia that would have taken two-and-a-half hours to drive in a government SUV at a cost of just $46 in gas and tolls. If the Secretary didn’t want to drive, he could have spent $72 on Amtrak, or even $447 to $725 to fly commercially.

Politico has been investigating Secretary Price’s travel, noting the $25,000 flight was just one of at least five, and possibly many more, that violate guidelines for federal officials that state “taxpayers should pay no more than necessary for your transportation.” Each of those five private flights cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars more than flying coach would have cost taxpayers. The five trips cost taxpayers an estimated $60,000.

Here’s the photo op Secretary Price posted from the trip that cost Americans $25,000 in just air travel:

Secretary Price is a former Republican U.S. Congressman from Georgia. His voting record places him in the “hard core conservative” tank, as far to the right on economic issues as possible. In short, he claims to be a fiscal conservative, and has promised to slash spending at the federal agencies he controls.

And like many Trump officials, Secretary Price has been anything but transparent about his work or his travel.

“Current and former staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say Price has been taking private jets to travel domestically for months,” Politico reports, adding that Secretary Price and his spokesperson refused to comment.

“I can understand why the secretary might have to use a charter flight to get to a hurricane-devastated region, but Philadelphia is not one of those regions this year,” Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, told Politico. “I find it hard to believe he couldn’t find a suitable commercial flight to Philadelphia.”

“This wasteful conduct reflects disdain for the ethical principle of treating public service as a public trust,” said Shaub. “Public office isn’t supposed to come with frivolous perks at taxpayer expense.”

Indeed, Politico also interviewed several Obama-era officials to determine if Price’s travel arrangement were standard.

They are anything but.

Former staffers for Obama-era Health and Human Services Secretaries Kathleen Sebelius and Sylvia Burwell told Politico that almost without exception not only did the two cabinet secretaries always fly commercially, they always flew coach.

WATCH: HHS Secretary Tom Price: $880 Billion Cut to Medicaid ‘Makes A Lot of Sense’

“The basic rules that our scheduling team worked under were, you flew commercial and you flew economy,” former Secretary Sebelius told Politico. “That’s just what they did.”

Staff for Burwell and Sebelius said booking even a single charter flight was, in the words of one, a “non-starter” within the department. For example, for last year’s Obamacare enrollment kick-off, HHS staff had planned a multi-city tour for Burwell to urge Americans to sign up for coverage. The effort, which would have required charter aircraft, was ultimately scrapped because of its estimated $60,000 cost.

“We were worried about the optics and the cost to taxpayers,” said one former staffer involved in the planning.

In any other administration this would be considered a scandal and there would be calls for Price to resign.

Here’s how one conservative pundit weighed in:

Politico’s Dan Diamond tweets out a photo of the plane that cost Price decided was worth $25,000 of taxpayers’ money for a few hours roundtrip:

Some more responses via Twitter:

RELATED STORIES:

Tom Price Has Been Head of HHS for 10 Days and Already Agency Harming LGBT People

U.S. Attorney Fired By Trump Was Investigating HHS Secretary Tom Price’s Shady Stock Deals

Trump’s HHS Secretary On Millions Losing Healthcare: “Nobody Will Be Worse Off Financially”

WATCH: HHS Nominee Price Blasted by Elizabeth Warren for Wanting to Cut Over a Trillion Dollars From Medicare, Medicaid

Trump Cabinet Pick Bought Stock in Company Days Before Introducing Bill to Help It

Trump Picks Anti-Gay Georgia Congressman as Secretary of Health and Human Services

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Image via Tom Price/Twitter

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‘Isn’t There a Beach in Mexico Waiting for You?’: Cruz Mocked for Claiming Garland Will Indict Trump Over SCOTUS Seat Loss

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June 6, 2023

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U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is being roundly mocked after claiming Attorney General Merrick Garland will indict Donald Trump because he “hates” the ex-president and because he is angry his early 2016 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was blocked.

“They hypocrisy is massive,” Sen. Cruz declared on Fox News Monday night. “And mark my words: I believe Merrick Garland will indict Donald Trump. He wants to indict Donald Trump because he hates Donald Trump. He hates him – he’s angry – Merrick Garland is angry that he wasn’t confirmed to the Supreme Court. he wants to indict him.”

Cruz, who has a law degree from Harvard, is wrong on the basic facts, and he’s being widely mocked for it.

As many are pointing out, first, Attorney General Garland appointed Jack Smith as Special Prosecutor. Smith, who was appointed as Acting U.S. Attorney by Donald Trump in 2017, will make the decision on whether or not to present charges to a grand jury. The grand jury, not Garland and not Smith, will make the decision on whether or not to indict Trump.

Also, whether or not Garland has any anger about not being confirmed by the U.S. Senate, that anger would rightly be pointed to then Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who took the unprecedented step of refusing to even allow a committee hearing to consider his nomination.

READ MORE: Jim Jordan Demands Merrick Garland Hand Over Documents Authorizing Special Counsel’s Trump Investigation

McConnell did that in early 2016, even before Trump was the GOP’s presidential nominee. Trump had nothing to do with blocking Garland’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This is dangerous,” warned foreign policy and intelligence expert John Sipher, who spent nearly three decades in the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service. “He knows what he’s doing and he’s risking violence.”

After Cruz’s Fox News appearance, he posted video of his own remarks and baselessly tweeted, “Merrick Garland is the most partisan Attorney General in American history. He has corrupted the DOJ, the FBI, and the machinery of government. And now, out of nothing but a sense of hatred and political retribution, Garland is trying to indict Trump.”

Later, on Tuesday he added, “Merrick Garland has corrupted the Department of Justice and effectively turned it into an arm of the Democratic National Committee. The FBI and DOJ want to protect and insulate Joe Biden and the Biden family’s corruption.”

None of his allegations have any basis in publicly-known fact.

Cruz came under fire in 2021 after advising Trump’s legal team during the ex-president’s second impeachment, even though he would also be a juror – and supposedly impartial – in Trump’s Senate trial. In December of 2020 Cruz told Trump he would “be happy” to argue a proposed Supreme Court lawsuit designed to keep Trump in power despite having lost the election one month earlier.

Author Cliff Schecter labeled Cruz’s claims on Fox News, “Complete horses*t, which is Ted’s brand.”

READ MORE: ‘This Is It, Make No Mistake’: ‘Nihilistic Moron’ Trump Heading for Another Indictment Says George Conway

“But, if true, Garland would be doing more re his SCOTUS rejection than @tedcruz did when Trump called his wife ugly,” he added. “Ted doesn’t get why Garland wouldn’t just make hostage video phone calls for Trump’s campaign.”

Historian and author Kevin M. Kruse: “The line that ‘they’re only indicting Trump for the crimes Trump clearly did because they hate Trump’ is pathetic when it comes from Trump himself, but Jesus Christ, it is twelve kinds of sad when it comes from one of his lickspittles.”

Reporter and award-winning columnist David Lazarus noted, “Republicans keep insisting Trump is being investigated and prosecuted because people in power hate him. That’s one theory. Or Trump is being investigated and prosecuted because he kept breaking the law.”

Lincoln Project co-founder Jennifer Horn, a former New Hampshire Republican State Committee chair, blasted Cruz.

“I’m sure it has nothing to do with classified documents or inciting an insurrection,” she said, referring to the two major portions of Smith’s investigation. And referring to Cruz’s infamous exit during a state-wide crisis when he hightailed out to Cancun, she asked: “Isn’t there a beach in Mexico waiting for you?”

Watch video of Cruz above or at this link.

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Jim Jordan Demands Merrick Garland Hand Over Documents Authorizing Special Counsel’s Trump Investigation

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2 hours ago

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June 6, 2023

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House Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding documents related to Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s two-tiered investigation into Donald Trump.

Chairman Jordan’s letter (below) comes just days before Smith’s grand jury is expected to reconvene after a short hiatus, and one day after Trump’s legal team met with DOJ investigators, including Smith.

Jordan is asking Garland to hand over an unreacted, full version of the memo that authorized Smith’s appointment as Special Counsel to investigate Trump, along with all supporting documentation. NBC News first reported on the existence of the letter.

Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, is claiming his request is part of his committee’s investigation into “the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) unprecedented raid of President Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022.”

READ MORE: ‘This Is It, Make No Mistake’: ‘Nihilistic Moron’ Trump Heading for Another Indictment Says George Conway

The letter in part states, “we write to request an unredacted copy of the memorandum outlining the scope of Mr. Smith’s probes regarding President Trump and any supporting documentation related to his appointment as special counsel. Accordingly, please provide the Committee with an unredacted copy of the memorandum outlining the scope of Special Counsel Smith’s investigations pursuant to his appointment on November 18, 2022, and any other document describing, listing, or delineating the authority and jurisdiction of the special counsel as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 20, 2023.”

Legal experts across the board anticipate Smith will ask the grand jury to indict the ex-president on a litany of federal felonies centered on his unlawful removal from the White House, retention, refusal to return, and possible sharing of classified and top secret documents. That indictment appeared even more likely after it as reported Smith has audio of Trump admitting he held on to a Pentagon document he knows is classified, and allegedly said he would like to be able to share it. Some experts say an indictment could come as early as this week.

Read Jordan’s letter below or at this link.

 

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‘This Is It, Make No Mistake’: ‘Nihilistic Moron’ Trump Heading for Another Indictment Says George Conway

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4 hours ago

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June 6, 2023

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George Conway mocked Donald Trump as a “nihilistic moron” for risking years in prison by hoarding classified documents at his private resort at Mar-a-Lago.

The former president appears to be headed toward a second indictment, after he was charged with fraud in Manhattan, and panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” discussed the latest developments in the quickening investigation by special counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago case.

“There is a sense of real panic growing at Mar-a-Lago, reflected in Trump’s Truth Social tweets but also those even calmer heads in the room say, ‘Look, we’re concerned, we feel like a charge could be coming.'”

Trump’s attorneys met Monday with officials at the Department of Justice to argue against an indictment, and conservative attorney George Conway said that showed an indictment was likely imminent.

FROM EARLIER: William Barr: ‘Unguided missile’ Rudy Giuliani completely to blame for first Trump impeachment

“We are approaching the very end,” Conway said. “I kept hearing this ear worm in my head as I was coming to the studio this morning, ‘This is it, make no mistake.’ We’re getting down to the final strokes of this race, and what’s clearly really remarkable about it is that of all the things that this man has done, eight decades of lying and cheating and stealing, this case, this documents case, is probably the easiest, shortest, simplest and yet carries the most severe penalties, likely penalties, of any of the cases, any of the legal issues that he’s ever faced.”

“Now people will say, you know, he really, in a just world, he would go to jail for what he did on Jan. 6, the weeks approaching Jan. 6,” Conway added. “And I kind of agree with that, but for this man who is basically a nihilistic moron, for him to go to jail potentially for a long time, these Espionage Act charges bring very heavy sentences to potentially go to jail for something so pointless and silly and useless as keeping these documents is actually kind of fitting.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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