Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ convoluted narrative about her nearly $20,000 custom-made podium is falling apart with each document that’s released.
The Associated Press recently received dozens of records under a Freedom of Information Act request related to the very expensive lectern. While the Arkansas GOP eventually paid for the podium in mid-September, the words “to be reimbursed” were only later added to the original invoice.
Sanders’ office used state funds to buy the lectern.
Republican State Senator Jim Hickey requested an audit of the curious purchase, and told the AP the new revelations “further indicate the need for a full blown audit to get all the facts.”
Laura Hamilton, executive assistant and office manager for Sanders, added the note about the state needing to be reimbursed. In an email, Department of Transformation and Shared Services employee Cassie Cantlon said Hamilton was instructed to not date her notice.
Why could that possibly be?!
“I asked if she wanted to date the note and she stated that she was told not to date it, but to just make the note that the invoice was to be reimbursed,” the email reads.
Sanders’ office continues to call #podiumgate “nothing more than a manufactured controversy,” but the gay-gating governor’s actions speak otherwise.
The whole scandal unraveled when Sanders called a special session to overhaul the state’s public records laws in response to a lawsuit from political blogger Matt Campbell, who claims the Arkansas State Police illegally withheld documents related to Sanders’ travel and security.
The special session generated backlash from Democrats, government transparency groups and even some Republicans. Sanders signed legislation limiting public access to her travel and security records.
That women would say or do anything to be in front of a camera spewing her vitriol.
— Larry Compton (@Digital_4ensics) October 11, 2023
Chances that Sarah has not been stealing from taxpayers? Zero.
— StLuGal (@StLuGal) October 11, 2023
How does a lectern cost $19k?
— TV-MA-LSV (@danielgjohnson) October 11, 2023
Grifters gonna grift
— Edward Smith II (@edwardlsmithii) October 11, 2023
Adding to the scandal, Arkansas purchased the $19,029.25 podium just in time for Sanders’ taxpayer-funded trip to Europe this summer. A company called Beckett Events LLC billed Arkansas for the lectern.
That detail is important, because Beckett Events’ founder, Victoria Beckett, is one of Sanders’ longtime advisors. Social media posts show Beckett and her business partner, Hannah Stone, overlapped with Sanders in France last summer.
That uncanny coincidence has fueled speculation the nearly $20,000 was meant for a European vacay, rather than a podium. Despite being purchased in June, the lectern wasn’t actually delivered until August.
And it looks, well, pretty basic. Just your average podium.
“You can get the same thing online for a few thousand dollars, so the huge price tag Beckett Events LLC charged the state of Arkansas remains a mystery,” writes the Arkansas Times.
That feeling when even your best-case scenario is that you paid $19k for something you could have gotten on Amazon for less than $4k. pic.twitter.com/LAnEKxjYxC
— Matt Campbell (@BlueHogReport) September 26, 2023
Is it like…full of cocaine
— Bryn Donovan – Author (@BrynDonovan) September 27, 2023
It’s ugly… looks like a $300 lectern to me.
— C.W. Lambert (@InsideTheBig12) September 26, 2023
An attorney, Tom Mars, says he has a client willing to provide a confidential statement to lawmakers who possesses firsthand knowledge of Sanders’ office interfering with open records requests.
There seems to be quite the cover-up here, huh?
As governor, Sanders has many real problems to deal with. This week, for example, almost half of the state’s residents lost their Medicare coverage.
Overall, Arkansas is the fourth poorest state in the nation, with a mounting affordable housing crisis and massive food insecurity. A recent Scholaroo survey found the state ranks 49th in the nation for quality of life and 50th in the nation for quality of health.
And yet, Sanders is busy passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation (the state has its own “Don’t Say Gay” law) and covering up her dubious purchases.
The people of Arkansas must be so grateful to have a governor who’s working for them, and not solely preoccupied with her own interests.
ShaverC
Rather than a vacation, it’s probably a way to launder money.
abfab
You need to launder your brain.
wikidBSTN
LOL. Skank busted!
Mack
Face it, the way the Republicans stay in office in the red states is keep telling the uneducated that the Democrats are coming for their guns. They don’t need education to handle a gun or marry their cousins.
Kangol2
Huckabeast! It was only a matter of time before her incompetence and lying started getting the best of her!
Vera Delmar
One has to wonder if there is a history of intra-breeding between members of the Huckabee family…might this explain her crooked eye.
abfab
Donald also has one freaky eye and I would not be surprised at all regarding the sexual practices of that family. After all, they do consider themselves royalty. The rest of the trumps are all as ugly as you can get.
Sarah is a snake. And that nasty ass podium is tacky. She looks perfect behind it.
scotty
lying runs in that family and ESPECIALLY that family. lying c v n t. who would ever expect anything else but lies from those grifters.
scotty
(sorry) she worked for drumpfy et al, FFS. that tells one all they need to know about how trustworthy she isn’t
ZzBomb
Christian Values: Lie, Steal, Cheat
abfab
This woman is so entertaining.
Body language expert analyzes Sanders’ remarks on lectern purchase
NEWSBY Griffin Coop ONOctober 13, 202311:16 am
The ARK TIMES
As “podiumgate” rolls on, it seems everything related to Arkansas’s most famous lectern is under great scrutiny — even the governor’s body language.
Dr. Jack Brown, who describes himself as a body language and emotional intelligence expert, analyzed Gov. Sarah Sanders’ remarks about the purchase of the $19,029.25 lectern. Sanders spoke briefly about the lectern purchase while at an event at a Springdale middle school on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
A casual observer might have noticed that the governor, who’s been questioned about the purchase for weeks now, seemed a little defensive. Brown expanded on that in generous detail yesterday via 12 posts to X, formerly known as Twitter.