GOP Congresswoman Tells Us Who REALLY Bought Ben Carson’s $31,000 Dining Set (AUDIO/TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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As we all know by now, Donald Trump isn’t draining the swamp. Far from it–his cabinet has overflowed that swamp several times over by living large at taxpayer expense. In one of the most shameful examples, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson–or rather, his wife, Candy–spent $31,000 of our money to buy a dining set for his Washington office.

Now who would even try to defend this? Well, a Republican congresswoman from New York tried her hand at it. She claimed the whole thing was part of a deep state plot to make Trump look bad.

Claudia Tenney represents New York’s 22nd District, a large swath of central New York anchored by Utica, Rome, and Binghamton. However, lately she’s been acting like a congresswoman from rural Mississippi or Texas. She seems to be finding creative ways to spew diarrhea of the mouth.

For instance, after a horrific mass shooting at a Florida high school, Tenney mused that most mass shooters “end up being Democrats.” In the face of withering criticism over that unhinged statement, Tenney harrumphed that “it’s fake news” to call her out on such idiocy.

Partly due to this, Tenney is going to have her hands full in November, even though she’s sitting in a district that Trump won 54-39 in 2016. She has a very credible Democratic challenger in State Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi. Cook Political Report considers this race a pure toss-up.

But Tenney may have outdone herself on Wednesday, when she dropped by the morning drive-time show on WUTQ in Utica. She used the occasion to offer a, shall we say, novel explanation for that dining set purchase. Listen here.

Tenney thought the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. How’s that?

“Somebody in the Deep State, it was not one of his people apparently, ordered a table, like a conference room table or whatever it was for a room. And that’s what the cost was. Ben Carson tried to—he said “you know how hard it is to turn it back because of the way that the procurement happens?'”

What planet was this from? Well, for those who don’t know, it’s more or less an article of faith in Trumpland that a cabal of career government staffers are trying to undermine Trump from within. To hear Tenney talk, one of those closet resistance members placed that order in order to stick it to Carson.

Never mind that Carson himself told a House Appropriations subcommittee–under oath–that his wife was primarily responsible for the dining set. Never mind that HUD’s longtime chief administrative officer claims she was demoted for daring to claim that the purchase was far above the legal limit. And never mind that a raft of emails proves that the Carsons were indeed involved in the purchase. No, no–it was all a deep state plot to keep Trump from making America great again.

It’s one thing to hear this from the likes of Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, or other fake news peddlers. It’s quite another to hear this from a member of the House of Representatives.

Brindisi, like just about everyone else with an iota of reason, was shaking his head.

The reaction from the rank and file was no less brutal.

https://twitter.com/Trumpocolypse7/status/976819661294784512

So far, the closest thing we’ve gotten to a response from Tenney is a dose of Trumpian red meat. She tried to tie Brindisi to disgraced former state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver.

It’s long been SOP for upstate Republicans to tie Democrats to corrupt politicians from New York City and Buffalo. Apparently Tenney forgets that Brindisi helped push Silver out in 2015.

But even without that to consider, how does that even begin to explain your most recent case of diarrhea of the mouth, Claudia? For all your hand-wringing over Brindisi’s supposed ties to Silver, you have yet to explain why the people of central New York should give another term to a conspiracy theory peddler who is trying to cosplay a congresswoman.

The people of this area deserve better. They deserve a congressman who will represent them, not embarrass them. That man is Anthony Brindisi. But he’s going to need a lot of help to take a seat that has only gone Democratic twice in 116 years. Click here to donate.

Bear this in mind if you’re unsure about going to the polls in November. The longer that the Republicans are in the majority, the longer that people like Claudia Tenney are empowered. Sending her packing is going to go a long way toward restoring sanity to Washington.

(featured image courtesy Tenney’s Facebook)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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