Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is firing back after it was reported that she used her private plane in conjunction with a three-day RV tour.
McCaskill has come under fire before for her use a of a private plane — and for failure to pay taxes on one as well.
Before she embarked on her pro-veterans tour, McCaskill advertised the RV that she would be using for travel between campaign events.
Very excited to hit the road next week in this. Names anyone for the RV? We are off on a “Veterans for Claire” tour on Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/XihjI71AjV
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) May 26, 2018
On Tuesday, McCaskill responded to a report, first published by The Washington Free Beacon, that used flight-tracking data to prove that McCaskill’s plane traveled the same route as the RV. She called the report ” not accurate,” but eventually admitted that she had used the plane for part of the travel.
“I added some stops with the use of the plane, but I was on the RV so much that the broken door drove me crazy. I even lost an iPad around a corner on the RV.”
Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley — who is hoping to win the party’s nomination to challenge McCaskill in November — quickly made use of the report on Twitter.
.@clairecmc’s definition of being “the hardest working Democrat in the Party.” Skipping out on her luxury RV to fly in her luxury jet. It must be good to be rich and liberal. #MOSen https://t.co/IvjlSx6VxN
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 12, 2018
McCaskill brushed off the report, calling it “election-year silliness” and saying that she only used the plane one of the three days of her RV tour. She explained, “Anybody could have followed me. They could have seen when I got off the RV and when I went and got on the airplane.” (RELATED: Claire McCaskill Declares That The Country Is In A ‘Constitutional Crisis’)
The GPS tracking data for McCaskill’s plane, as reported by both The Washington Free Beacon and Politico, shows the plane tracking the RV’s itinerary for two of the three days.