Never one to shade his sentiments, President Donald Trump called out Sen. Claire McCaskill for her use of a private plane to ferry her around the state during an alleged RV tour.
Trump tweeted, “Senator Claire McCaskill of the GREAT State of Missouri flew around in a luxurious private jet during her RV tour of the state. RV’s are not for her. People are really upset, so phony! Josh Hawley should win big, and has my full endorsement.”
As reported in Politico, an email from National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Bob Salera pretty much sums up the issue at hand, “Claire McCaskill is desperate to put on a folksy act when she’s back in Missouri, but she’s too much of an elitist to even stick to a three-day RV tour without hopping on her private plane.”
Sen. McCaskill, who is up for re-election in November, confirmed Salera’s accusation. “I added some stops with the use of the plane, but I was on the RV so much that the broken drawer drove me crazy,” McCaskill told Politico on Tuesday, adding, “I even lost an iPad around a corner on the RV.”
This is not the first time an issue with a private plane has dogged McCaskill, the wealthiest elected official in the Midwest. In 2011, McCaskill sold a private plane after failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in property tax.
In that same year, McCaskill had to reimburse the Treasury Department more than $88,000 after Politico reported “on dozens of flights she had chartered using her Senate office budget, employing a company incorporated by her husband.”
On this latest controversy, Republican candidate Josh Hawley mocked McCaskill’s self-definition as being “the hardest working Democrat in the Party.” Tweeted Hawley, “Skipping out on her luxury RV to fly in her luxury jet. It must be good to be rich and liberal.”
Despite the Trump endorsement, candidate Tony Monetti, a retired B-2 pilot, is not about to concede. Indeed, he just scored a powerful endorsement from former VP candidate Sarah Palin, who will be coming to Kansas City on June 27 to show her support.
An outspoken Trump supporter himself, Monetti might do well at this juncture to compare his flying experience with Air Claire’s.