The use of private jets helped take Air Mary Landrieu down.
Via Bloomberg
Hillary Clinton took more than 200 privately chartered flights at taxpayer expense during her eight years in the U.S. Senate, sometimes using the jets of corporations and major campaign donors as she racked up $225,756 in flight costs.
Clinton, 67, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, reported the travel in official filings with the Senate. The records were provided to Bloomberg News by a Republican operative.
Some of the companies whose planes she used included Coca-Cola Co., Citigroup Inc. and Saban Capital Group Inc.
While the flights fell within congressional rules and were not out of the ordinary for senators at the time, they could play into the emerging Republican line of attack that Clinton’s wealth and years in government office have left her out of touch with the voters she’ll court on the campaign trail.
Republican Mitt Romney, who is considering another bid for president, took a swipe at Clinton’s suggestion to voters that “corporations and businesses” don’t create jobs when he spoke in Starkville, Mississippi, last night.[…]
Members of the Senate spent $1 million in taxpayer money on privately chartered flights in 2013, according to a report in USA Today. The practice became a political issue last year for Democratic Senate candidates, including Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, who lost, and Virginia’s Mark Warner, who won a closer-than-expected battle for re-election.
Landrieu spent $47,000 on charter flights in 2013 and Warner spent $8,500 on a tour around his state that year, USA Today reported. While some senators don’t charter flights at all, Clinton’s eight-year average of $28,125 per year falls within the range of other lawmakers.
Still, Clinton is facing criticism from Republicans for flights she took more than six years ago.
“The examples of how out of touch Hillary is continue to rack up,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “Hillary’s love of private jet travel doesn’t even stop at taxpayer dollars.”