Things keep getting worse for Tom Price, the Health and Human Services secretary who has taken numerous chartered private or government jets to travel around the country and the world, all on the taxpayer’s dime. Nearly every day the total bill for Price’s known flights keeps going up—the latest figure is half a million dollars for military flights overseas—while an internal review from the department inspector general and inquiries from Congress continue to press for more information (along with Politico, which uncovered these flights from the get-go).
And so the doctor and former Republican congressman was tacitly admitting fault on Thursday when he released a statement promising to write a check to cover the cost of his seat on several private charter flights—$51,887, to be exact. Absent from the statement, however, was a straightforward apology.
A few hours later, Price appeared with Fox News’s Bret Baier, who grilled the HHS secretary on the topic.
“You say in a statement the taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes,” Baier said. “You are writing a check, we understand, $51,887. The total cost is estimated at more than $400,000 for the 26 flights since May. Is that okay?”
“There is an ongoing review being done by the inspector general,” Price said. “I think it’s important to wait for that.”
In the realm of lame answers, this may be the king. Also lame is his check for his “seats” rather than the entire charter flights. These were mostly for trips Price could have taken commercially on a similar schedule, and at a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer. It’s not just an expensive seat for Price taxpayers are footing, but the entire cost of a flight that’s been chartered for him.
After Price’s announcement that he would reimburse the government for his seat, I asked the White House if this was satisfactory. I have not yet received a response. But the White House has not done much to cover for Price, insisting since these stories first emerged that the charter flights were not White-House approved. President Donald Trump has said he is “not happy” with the revelations, something press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated during her briefing on Thursday.
“But to be clear also, the White House does not have a role on the front end of approving private charter flights at agencies, and that’s something that we’re certainly looking into from this point forward and have asked a halt to be put, particularly at HHS, on any private charter flights moving forward until those reviews are completed,” Sanders said. What about Price’s future in the administration? Sanders didn’t convey optimism.
“We’re going through this process, we’re going to conduct a full review, and we’ll see what happens,” she said.
Price Fallout—Other cabinet agencies have been and will continue to be facing closer scrutiny over their own flights. Interior secretary Ryan Zinke has taken a few charter flights, Politico reports, though these appear to have been to relatively remote locations in the West, Alaska, and the Virgin Islands. Flights by Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt have also come under the microscope, though the Washington Post found just one charter flight and three government flights. John Roberts of Fox News reported the charter flight was the result of an 8-hour delay of a commercial flight in Colorado.
Under normal circumstances, the flights for Zinke and Pruitt might have been unremarkable, particularly since their pricey trips appear situational and not habitual. That’s exactly Price’s problem—his charter flights seem to have been a matter of course. For now, the White House says the halt on charter flights applies just to HHS and Price until that department’s internal review is complete.
Weekend in Jersey—President Trump returns to his golf club resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Friday afternoon, where he will spend the weekend.
President Trump has nominated eight new judges, including four to seats on the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Among those four nominees are Texas supreme court justice (and Twitter celebrity) Don Willett and former Texas solicitor general James Ho.
Feature of the Day—“Losing the part: How Darrell Hammond, SNL’s best impressionist ever, found life after Trump,” the Washington Post.
Private Email Watch—This is a wild one, from CNN: “Kushner didn’t disclose personal email account to Senate intel committee.”
The death of Playboy creator and all-around creep Hugh Hefner on Wednesday prompted our editors to republish Matt Labash’s terrific 2004 review of Hef’s semi-autobiography. Here’s a taste:
Song of the Day—“Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins.
