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.”
Even shitty states like Arkansas have budgets in the tens of billions of dollars; $19k is a rounding error. Nobody cares about $19k, unless it turns out to be a crime, which this might be.
Well that’s the issue. A podium like that normally costs a few hundred dollars max. So why was this one so expensive? Fraud is a crime.
That’s not to mention that podiums are mostly pointless anyways. You could just stand and talk just as easily without one.
If you paid taxes and are struggling to pay all your bills I could see why that would be infuriating