this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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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] 159 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 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] 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brent ☆☆☆☆☆

Perfect at home in Arkansas or with my friends in Paris

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023

Don't let your husband or state know that this thing is under $1,000 because it could go for $19,000-$20,000 EASILY! It's the perfect accessory for "governing", photoshopping, and fraud. Me and the gal pals really enjoyed this from afar while we were in Paris, France. 10/10

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The fact that this is on Amazon for under a grand is hilarious. These people are absolute morons. I hope they get nailed and the truth comes out.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow... fucking blatant corruption. Just gross.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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] 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 1 year ago (2 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.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year 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 1 year 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."

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You sound like someone that doesn't know shit about fancy lecterns.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know a thing or two about fancy lecterns and that one couldn't cost more than 2 grand on a good day except if it was being used to cover up corruption and graft in the Humunculoid Huckabee Arkansas state government

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know anything about fancy lecterns, but looking at the Amazon link someone posted, I can certainly recognize particleboard with a wood-grain veneer on it... Honestly, $2k feels expensive for that, I'd say it should be about $500 at Ikea.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

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

Sorry, I meant embezzlement.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (7 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.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

It’s called money laundering.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

The party of fiscal responsibility!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some say money laundering??

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year 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

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year 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.

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

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

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

They didn't. This is graft in action

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

That's the state that just wrecked child labor laws, right?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Republicunts. The original welfare queens.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year 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!

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