Sebastian Gorka doesn’t want to talk about his special friendship with Danny Tarkanian, the insurgent Republican challenging incumbent Sen. Dean Heller in the Nevada GOP primary.
Asked at CPAC whether he sold Tarkanian his endorsement, the former White House strategist bristles. “No, because that would be illegal,” Gorka tells me in his English accent, taking care to emphasize each word. “I was given an honorarium.”
As the Washington Examiner first reported, the timeline of payments and speeches and endorsements is as follows: Gorka endorsed Tarkanian on stage in Nevada on Dec. 20. Disclosures filed with the Federal Electoral Commission show that the candidate paid the speaker $5,000 the day before.
The campaign later confirmed the payment and claimed it’s not unusual for politicians to pay speaking fees to their endorsers. But a search through FEC records shows the opposite. In the last three election cycles, only two candidates ever made such payments.
Asked if it is normal for him to get paid for speaking gigs with politicians, Gorka guffaws: “Me getting speaking fees? Every week, yes.”
