Claire McCaskill (D-MO) confirmed Tuesday that she used her family’s personal plane during some periods of a three-day campaign RV trip through Missouri, though she derided the scrutiny as “election-year silliness,” according to a Politico report.
The Washington Free Beacon published a report Tuesday after using aircraft-tracking data to discern that McCaskill did not spend the entirety of her “Veterans for Claire” RV trip inside the vehicle, ducking out to her plane for some stops.
“I spent two-plus days on the RV,” McCaskill told Politico, adding that the plane “picked me up at the end of one day, after I spent all day on the RV” before being used to add “some stops.”
McCaskill’s opponents have jumped on the report, using it to paint her as an out-of-touch Washington elite.
“Claire McCaskill is desperate to put on a folksy act when she’s back in Missouri, but she’s too much of an elitist to even stick to a three-day RV tour without hopping on her private plane,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Bob Salera told Politico.
This is not the first time a personal aircraft landed McCaskill in hot water. In 2011, she was forced to sell her family’s private plane after failing to pay property taxes on it. She has since repaid the money.