Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office says the lectern was a legitimate purchase and disputes claims that any laws were potentially broken.
Arkansas lawmakers questioned Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ staff about the purchase of a $19,000 lectern after an audit showed potential non-compliance with the state’s law on purchasing, property, and government records.
On Tuesday, during a nearly three-hour hearing before the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, the first-term governor’s top aides faced scrutiny from lawmakers, including some Republicans, over the purchase.
“I don’t think the lectern’s worth $19,000 or $11,500,” Republican state Sen. John Payton said. “But I do think the lesson learned could be worth far more than that if we would just accept the fact that it was bad judgment and it was carelessness.”
The audit, released on Monday, found seven potential violations of state law, including paying for the lectern prior to delivery, capitalizing it as an operating expense, and the handling of government records.
“No laws were broken,” Ms. Sanders’ office said in a response filed with the report. “No fraud was committed.”
Judd Deere, Ms. Sanders’ deputy chief of staff, disputed the findings, characterizing the audit’s findings as “deeply flawed” and a “waste of taxpayer resources and time.”
He said the governor’s office did not mishandle the purchase. The governor’s chief legal counsel, Cortney Kennedy, appeared alongside Mr. Deere.
“This is not a mistake,” Mr. Deere told the panel. “The podium was a legitimate purchase.”
The blue and wood-paneled lectern was bought from Beckett Events, LLC, a Virginia-based company, in June 2023. The $19,029.25 purchase was paid for using a state credit card. Ms. Sanders’ office said it received the lectern in August.
The Republican Party reimbursed Arkansas for the purchase on Sept. 14 and the governor’s office said the use of the state credit card amounted to an accounting error.
The total cost of the $11,575 lectern included a $2,500 “consulting fee” and $2,200 for the lectern’s road case. Shipping, delivery, and a credit card processing fee were also included.
Republican state Sen. Mark Johnson defended Ms. Sanders but said he would have recommended that the state GOP pay for the lectern from the outset.
“This particular procedure should not be politicized,” Mr. Johnson said.
‘Manufactured Controversy’
Ms. Sanders, who served as press secretary for former President Donald Trump, has described the issue as a “manufactured controversy.” On Monday afternoon, after the audit was released, she posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, featuring the lectern.
“My thoughts on the podium ...” she wrote. The 20-second video shows various images of the lectern, with the words “My Name is Podium” flashing on the screen at about the three-second mark. The video wraps with an image of a black podium with the words “Come And Take It” underneath it, reminiscent of the famous Texas flag from the Battle of Gonzales from the first military action of the Texas Revolution.
Democratic House Minority Leader State Rep. Tippi McCullough asked Mr. Deere why the governor posted the video.
“It kind of felt like spiking the football before we'd been through the whole process,” Ms. McCullough said.
Mr. Deere assured the lawmaker that no taxpayer money was used to produce the video, which was shot by a member of Ms. Sanders’ staff on his own time.
“It’s a tongue-in-cheek video, that’s all it is,” he said.
State Rep. Julie Mayberry called the lectern, which has remained unused, a “complete waste of money if no one is using it.”
But Mr. Deere said the governor was waiting until the audit was completed to start using it because she did not want the lectern to be a distraction.
Lectern Draws National Attention
The lectern has garnered national attention, ranging from The New York Times to late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel.Auditors noted in the report that they were unable to determine whether the lectern’s cost was reasonable. Three out-of-state vendors involved in the purchase failed to respond to multiple requests for more information.
Ms. Sanders’ office and the auditors also disagreed on whether the governor and other state officers are subject to the purchasing and property rules she is accused of breaching.
The governor’s office is accused of not following the appropriate steps for agencies to dispose of state property.
The audit “maintains that the podium and the road case remain state property.”
In its response, the governor’s office said that the purchasing and property laws apply to state agencies, not to constitutional officers.
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin argued the same opinion in a nonbinding legal opinion issued last week.
“I am perplexed to see that a significant portion of Legislative Audit’s analysis rests on the mistaken conclusion that the governor’s office is a ’state agency' for the purposes of certain statutes,” Mr. Griffin said in a statement on Monday.
