U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is disputing a report on a conservative website implying that while her campaign was touting her ground-level RV tour of Missouri last month, the Democratic senator was actually flying overhead in her private plane.
But the campaign confirmed that the plane did in fact have a backup role in the tour 鈥 an admission that brought immediate turbulence to a senator for whom air travel has been politically hazardous in the past.
The report in the uses flight tracking data to assert that, while the McCaskill campaign was promoting its three-day 鈥淰eterans for Claire鈥 tour across the state in late May, the single-engine turboprop she owns was taking roughly the same route overhead.
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The report acknowledges that it doesn鈥檛 prove McCaskill herself was flying instead of driving, but it is presented with that implication. 鈥淐laire McCaskill鈥檚 Private Plane Used on Campaign鈥檚 RV Tour Through Missouri,鈥 reads the headline.
鈥淪en. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) said her campaign was 鈥榟itting the road鈥 in an RV to tour the state,鈥 reads the first sentence, 鈥渂ut public flight information indicates that travel also occurred on her million-dollar private plane.鈥
McCaskill鈥檚 likely Republican opponent in November, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, jumped on the story Tuesday. 鈥淍clairecmc鈥檚 definition of being 鈥榯he hardest working Democrat in the Party,鈥欌 he tweeted. 鈥淪kipping out on her luxury RV to fly in her luxury jet. It must be good to be rich and liberal.鈥
McCaskill鈥檚 campaign said Tuesday that she was physically on the RV throughout the originally scheduled travel and stops on the tour.
A spokeswoman said her plane did take her to overnight stays in Kansas City and 狐狸视频 at the end of each day of touring. Her campaign said it also took her to a stop in St. Joseph that was added after the tour was originally scheduled, because the RV didn鈥檛 have time to get to it and still make a later stop already scheduled for Columbia.
鈥淚 was on the RV so much that the broken drawer was driving me crazy,鈥 McCaskill said in a written statement provided to the Post-Dispatch. 鈥淚 spent 2+ days on the RV and only used the plane when we added a stop in St. Joe (where the RV was unable to travel) and to get to my overnights.鈥
Her office stressed that no public money was used in connection with the plane.
McCaskill, one of , has been dogged in the past by the issue of private flight.
In 2011, it came out that she had charged taxpayers for flights in a different private plane she owned with her husband and that she鈥檇 failed to pay almost $300,000 in personal property taxes on it. She ultimately paid back the public funds, caught up on the taxes and got her husband to 鈥渟ell the damn plane,鈥 but not before being tagged with the nickname 鈥Air Claire鈥 by her critics.
The issue flared up again last year when, during a town hall meeting, she appeared to agree with a questioner鈥檚 assertion that 鈥渘ormal people鈥 could afford to fly private planes.
鈥This post has been updated with additional details from the McCaskill campaign about the stop in St. Joseph.