US Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign spent $12 million on personal jet journey, with $2.6 million shelled out within the closing days of her marketing campaign alone, Federal Election Fee (FEC) information revealed. The marketing campaign, between October 1 and October 17, reportedly paid almost $2.2 million to Non-public Jet Providers Group, a South Florida-based firm, and an additional $430,000 to Superior Aviation Staff, a Virginia-based constitution flight dealer.
Critics had been fast to level out the disconnect between Harris’ use of personal jets – as much as 14 occasions extra polluting than business flights – and her previous statements labelling world warming as an “existential menace.”
“Kamala Harris and plenty of pro-climate leaders have plenty of hypocrisy with the phrases that they state and the realities they have to suppose are actual,” Benji Backer, founding father of the American Conservation Coalition informed the NY Publish. “We’d like smart options on atmosphere and local weather points, however we’re not going to get them when there’s a lot hypocrisy coming from the elitists.”
Non-public Jet Providers Group claims its flights are carbon-neutral because of a reforestation program, although it stays unclear if the marketing campaign bought carbon offsets for these flights.
Past the tens of millions spent on personal air journey, the marketing campaign incurred vital prices on objects like $12,097 for meals supply companies comparable to Uber Eats and DoorDash, $12,081 on ice cream, and $62,772 on lodging and catering on the luxurious Lodge Du Pont in Delaware.
Different expenditures included $9,600 on meals and drinks at Pebble Bar in New York Metropolis and $6,000 to hire area at a board recreation cafe in Arizona.
The marketing campaign additionally funnelled $5.6 million to varied left-leaning advocacy teams, together with Voto Latino, Make the Highway Motion Fund, and Al Sharpton’s Nationwide Motion Community.
Regardless of burning by means of a record-breaking $1.6 billion in mixed marketing campaign funds, Harris’ marketing campaign ended with $20 million in debt. Critics throughout the Democratic Social gathering have pointed to the wasteful spending as a serious cause for her loss, with some questioning the decision-making course of.
“You’re looking at these seven-figure luxurious prices and pondering, ‘Could not which were deployed to succeed in guys who hearken to podcasts, to Hispanic males, or suburban voters?’” mentioned Democratic strategist Jon Reinish.
Whereas Harris’ group spent closely on advert buys by means of Media Shopping for & Analytics LLC – receiving $281 million in marketing campaign funds – Donald Trump gained floor throughout the US and gained the election.
GOP guide Erin Perrine summarised the fallout: “As an alternative of getting the message out, they needed to have a celebration. That is not the way it works.”