Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained a set of documents which prove just how much money Democratic California Representative/House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dished out on previous foreign trips, much like the one that she was planning on taking last week, but was stopped by the White House.
The Daily Caller reports that the Democrat’s CoDel trip, which President Donald Trump canceled after Pelosi accused the White House of “abusing scarce resources by holding the State of the Union address in the midst of a government shutdown, was hardly her first trip abroad on the American dime,” according to the Daily Wire.
A Freedom of Information Act from Judicial Watch requested information regarding Nancy Pelosi’s previous CoDel trips uncovered a trip she took in 2015 to Italy and the Ukraine… on board Air Force planes. The trip ended up costing $184,587.81.
The Washington Post reported at the time, asking for information specifically regarding why Pelosi stopped in Italy as part of the Congressional delegation’s trip to the Ukraine which, at that time, was going through a national crisis. Pelosi took the trip in August, just months after the Crimean crisis, while the country was still “recovering from riots, a major revolution, and a standoff with Russian forces,” the Daily Wire reports.
It seems that Pelosi was looking to treat her family to a vacation on the government’s dime:
The Daily Caller reported:
Four family members, including Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi, were slated to go on the trip. The delegation was scheduled to dine at restaurants including James Beard American Restaurant in Milan, where a five-course meal cost up to $190, according to Fine Dining Lovers. The lawmakers also toured the Vatican and met up with Italian dignitaries, including President Sergio Mattarella and then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, according to their itinerary.
On top of that, Pelosi’s family was reportedly treated to a viewing of the “Sistine Chapel, the Duomo, and a viewing of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” according to CNS.
The Democrat justified the vacation at the time, claiming it was ‘intended to underscore the U.S. commitment to security in that region,’ according to a Politico report which questioned Pelosi’s need for a “full delegation trip to western Europe.”
The Daily Wire reports:
In a statement on the subject, Judicial Watch notes that Pelosi’s jaunt to Europe cost considerably more than other CoDel trips, including a late-2015 trip by Sen. Cory Gardner to East Asia (which included stops in notoriously expensive cities like Tokyo, Japan). That Congressional trip cost taxpayers a mere $26,009.03 because Gardner used commercial air travel and took a per diem instead of charging his meals directly to the federal government.
In fact, Judicial Watch says, Nancy Pelosi has made a habit of spending more on travel than her colleagues. Although they don’t have concrete numbers, Judicial Watch estimates that Pelosi may have cost taxpayers as much as $2,100,744.59 over a single, two-year period, including a whopping $101,429.14 for “in-flight conveniences, such as food and alcohol.”
Judicial Watch reported in 2011 that Nancy Pelosi wasn’t a stranger to using Air Force planes for personal travel. The Conservative watchdog group explained that she had used the Air Force to go between Washington, D.C., and her home district of San Francisco, California, despite the fact that commercial flights between the two airports are available all the time.
Leftists are claiming that the canceled CoDel trip was of extremely important, and that the House Speaker was set to visit important places at a “particularly sensitive geopolitical moment.”
The Daily Wire explains, “Pelosi’s schedule included stops at NATO’s headquarters and a brief on-the-ground meeting with troops in Afghanistan following President Trump’s decision to make a swift exit from the Afghani war zone. No itinerary was outlined for Pelosi’s Egypt visit. They probably shouldn’t worry. It’s clear that when the shutdown is over, Pelosi will make up for lost time. And travel.”