The checkered flag apparently has not waved yet on Rep. Betty McCollum’s (D-MN) fight to strip away Pentagon funding from NASCAR.
On MSNBC this afternoon, the St. Paul, Minn., congresswoman showed no signs of backing down on her staunch criticism of the Defense Department spending $7 million sponsoring the #39 Sprint Cup U.S. Army Chevy Impala, driven by Ryan Newman.
McCollum continued her push despite watching her amendment fall 281-148 in the House two weeks ago, as well as receiving a nasty threat.
“This is where the rubber meets the road. We’re all making tough, tough choices on what to cut here,” said McCollum. “So if it’s a choice between cutting homeless veterans’ projects, kicking kids off of Head Start, or not having our tax dollars go to sponsor race car drivers … I just don’t see that we can afford that right now.”
After host Richard Lui read a response from North Carolina GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry stating that McCollum was on a “warpath against NASCAR”, the Congresswoman tried to show that she did support America’s #1 auto racing organization.
“I’ve watched the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500,” she said. “It’s something our family has done on and off over the years. We’re not on a war path against NASCAR, that’s ridiculous.”
For the record, the “Indy 500” is the famous May race in Indianapolis for Indy cars, not NASCAR.
Watch the video below:
