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498

A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit (apnews.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

62 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.”

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[–] [email protected] 127 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Man they got fucking robbed. Amazon has it for only $944 The Amazon review though...

If you are concerned about wasteful spending I highly recommend going with this price from Amazon

EDIT: Yes, I'm pretty sure they paid $1,000 for it and then reported $19,000 pocketing the difference. As someone who has lived their whole life in Tennessee (and has worked for a period of time in State Government), that's Southern politics 101. Days where they aren't fleecing the taxpayer are few and far between here in the Southeastern US.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wow... fucking blatant corruption. Just gross.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago

Yeah straight up corruption, lying and stealing. And will she ever be punished for her blatant abuse of power? Nope. Obviously this should ban her from ever being anywhere near public office but that won't ever happen and they'll continue to do it until there are consequences. I feel like I repeat that a lot nowadays but people get away with too much ridiculous shit these days and are never punished for it. George Santos anybody? How the fuck is he still in office? We need some fucking standards otherwise the country will continue to go to shit.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They didn't pocket the difference. Gov Sanders used state money to go on vacation and this is the cover.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (8 children)

That's what "pocketing the difference" is. She took the state money she said was used for the lectern and used it for personal purposes.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

lol, yhgtbsm. Unbelievable.

A ~$900 lectern for $19k. Fraud in broad daylight. I can’t call it “skimming off the top” because it’s so upside down.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I'll be honest.. I only clicked on this article because I was curious as to what a $19,000 lectern looks like. 🤷

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Same. Thought maybe some local woodworker produced a beautiful lectern.

No, turns out it's from amazon with some spray paint and Arkansas is just being Arkansas.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

You'll have to keep looking because this thing was <$1K on Amazon

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

Sanders' entire job at the White House involved lying to the public on a regular basis. Is it any wonder she leveraged the same skill set at her next job?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So is this how Republicans are supposedly such responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars?

Sheesh, she's even giving the Pentagon a run for their money (no pun intended):

These Toilet Seat Lids Aren’t Gold-Plated but They Cost $14,000

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Working as intended. Having the government overpay tenfold for goods and services is neoliberals favourite method of converting public funds into private profit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Lord knows when I think of SHS and The Pentagon I think of neolibs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I used to work in aerospace and we had a few government customers. Every single government part was sold to a contractor who then flipped it to the government for like 10x what they paid for it.

It was real annoying when they needed parts for old aircraft with deprecated specifications/components that were no longer available because the contractors had no engineering staff so we couldn't ask them for clarification on which parts/specs to use beyond standard military supercessions which sometimes had no suitable replacements.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.

Is this typical for the party to reimburse the state for an elected official? If it was reimbursed from campaign funds, wouldn't that be covered by campaign finance laws? Sounds like either the Republican Party is trying to cover it up by reimbursing for it, or they're doing weird accounting to get through a loophole of campaign finance laws.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's a coverup. There only defense is "we made an oopsy. This was supposed to be bought with private funds and now it is after it became a clear case of grift. Nothing to see here, tee hee."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Is there ever a time where it is above board for these types of reimbursements to happen? Seems like it should be something illegal already, but maybe there's something I'm missing?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Some say money laundering??

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Money laundering is taking dirty money and making it clean, this is taking clean money and making it dirty, in someones dirty corrupt pocket

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

A lot of people are saying it. Very smart people.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.

Haha so I guess "bold conservative reforms" is their new code phrase for hatred and intolerance.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

And "we had to buy a $19k lectern...it was to good a price to pass up"

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I can’t believe someone paid $19,000 for that ugly piece of junk.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They didn't. This is graft in action

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Someone paid $20.28 for that and $6.99 for a rattlecan of metallic blue, and then charged the other $19,000.00 for "labor". (I'm optimistically assuming they paid tax on the store bought items)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Oh it's even more blatant. She bought it from a friend, who then used the money to go on vacation. It's a blatant kick back.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Why on earth would that cost 20 grand? That thing is ugly as fuck

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Of course it costs 20 grand, look at all that embellishment!

Sorry, I meant embezzlement.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

The made in china version is $1000. Make it custom in the US with real hardwood and we are more like $5000. We can see that has a mic installed, which is $500 for a good mic (A $10 mic would work okay, but the $500 does sound better and isn't unreasonable), which we will pair with electronics to turn the audio into digital for another $500. While we are at it we will build in a computer with a presenters display all connected to the building video system - another $5000.

I'm trying to be generous by using the highest reasonable costs and the most complex feature set. I still can only come up with $11k.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Oddly enough, the ‘official’ presidential mic is a pair of Shure SM57s which cost $100 brand new.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There is nothing wrong with a SM57 in this application, but you can get a better mic for more $$$. Generally people going for a better mic first head to a studio and have an engineer try them on each one until they find one that sounds good with their voice. But in the end the difference from the sound of a SM57 is tiny so few bother, even the best professionals often choose a SM57 for their best recordings after comparing to more expensive microphones.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Except that it looks pretty much exactly like the picture on Amazon and ain't no custom job with real hardwood.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

$10 would work ok but $500 not unreasonable

It's just 50x the price to go from 'okay' to 'good', fuck it why not 200x to get the 'great' model? It's only taxpayers money!

Shit, if I ran this country, everyone would be using $10 ikea end tables stacked 2x tall for their 'I'm important and need a fancy stand'. The microphone is your voice being louder. Want a chair, that's not in the budget sorry. You so much as take an Uber to a press conference and that's also coming out of your own pocketbook. Ain't showed up on Thursday? You ain't getting paid for Thursday. Govt shutdown? Oh I'm sorry, you thought you were getting paid for not doing your job?

But no, no, gotta pamper the idiots who think they matter. Damn country is fucked 8 ways from Sunday.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

A $100 mic (the SM57 the president uses) is enough better than a $10 mic that speakers and audiences should care. The $500 mic is slightly better but most people can't tell outside of AB tests in a controlled environment. As you go over $100 in price microphones get more special purpose and often are worse than cheaper ones outside of their special purpose - each human voice is different, so $500 is about the most you can spend on a general purpose microphone and be objectively better than something cheaper. While you can spend $2000 or even $4000 on a microphone, they tend to be very fragile - as in breath on them wrong and you break them - so they are only used in studios where you can ensure nobody breaths wrong around them.

Remember, I'm trying to come up with the reasonable most you could pay for this. You really should be spending less. There is no reasonable justification for the 200x microphone. There is a reasonable justification for the 50x cost - if only just barely justifiable.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

It’s called money laundering.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I'm not a lectern aficionado, but I feel very confident agreeing with you that this particular lectern is offensively ugly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

As a amateur furniture maker, I could totally figure out how to make this thing cost $20k. It'd look so much cooler than this shit though....

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

lol literally nothing will happen because literally nothing ever does. Everything is farce now.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It should be removed one day and replaced with four empty boxes and a big lots desktop microphone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

4 boxes yes. However instead of microphone jut buy/rent a good wireless lapel mic system. It is what nearly every presenter wants anyway.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Republicunts. The original welfare queens.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The lectern’s purchase was first uncovered by Matthew Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has sued State Police for withholding records he had requested about Sanders’ travel and security.

Days after Campbell filed his initial suit, Sanders called a special legislative session and proposed broad exemptions to the state’s open records law.

Sanders signed into law a measure restricting the public’s access to her travel and security records after she and lawmakers backed off more widespread exemptions that faced backlash from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives.

According to Mars’ letter, the interference includes the governor’s office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.

“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.

Hickey’s request also asks for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month.

The original article contains 745 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That thing is hideous.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

As befits.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

When you elect stinky fish, don't be surprised when it starts to rot. Let's be real, she should be nowhere in sight of a position of power.

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