In an embarrassing moment for the DNC, a conservative watchdog (FACT) accused Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) of steering $6.9 million in taxpayer grants to Ocean Conservancy, where his wife is paid as a consultant, calling it a blatant conflict of interest and a “circular relationship” and drawing attention to his hypocrisy as a supposed fighter of corruption who in reality is far momre corrupt than those, like President Trump, who he attacks.
For context, Whitehouse dismissed the damning allegations as recycled “dark money smears” from billionaires trying to silence his Supreme Court probes. Despite this scandal, Whitehouse kept attacking Trump as a fossil-fuel shill driving up energy costs, a “dangerously spiraling” felon pardoning insurrectionists, and mocked his whale-windmill comments.
The controversial Democrat has also targeted Trump appointee Ric Grenell at the Kennedy Center for alleged impropriety, despite Grenell delivering the first balanced budget in decades and massive fundraising.
As background, kicking off the allegations against Sen. Whitehouse, FACT executive director Kendra Arnold said, “Senator Whitehouse advocated and voted for legislation that led to $6.9 million of taxpayer funds being paid to an organization that his wife works for and receives an income from.”
Additionally, she noted, “It is this type of circular relationship between a Senator and an organization that lobbies and pays his wife a salary that the public is rightfully fed up with. Congressional rules are in place to ensure our taxpayer dollars are going to serve our nation and that our Senators are not behaving in a manner that would call this into question.”
Continuing her comments, Arnold kept digging. “While these two grants alone appear to be a conflict of interest, it is even more egregious in the context of Senator Whitehouse’s long history of working on legislation being lobbied for by organizations tied to his wife,” she wrote.
In a desperate attempt to dodge responsibility, Whitehouse’s office said, “This is a repeat dark money performance, and the previous attempt by a dark money group to plant these same smears was roundly dismissed by Senate Ethics.”
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Doubling down, the Democrat claimed, “The billionaires and Supreme Court capture operatives behind FACT would like to try to stop Senator Whitehouse from shining a light on what they’ve done to deprive regular people of a fair shake before the Court.”
Despite the scandals, White House has continued to cynically attack Trump. In a deeply ironic tweet, he alleged, “Meanwhile, Trump purposefully drives up consumers’ electricity costs by suppressing clean energy on the grid, forcing grid operators to go to more-expensive fossil fuel units. Money goes straight from ratepayers’ pockets to his big fossil fuel donors. Sweet scam.”
Additionally, he claimed, “From pardoning MAGA insurrectionists who brought a noose to the Capitol, to urging that members of Congress be hanged, Trump is dangerously spiraling,” adding, “Considering Trump thinks that ‘windmills are driving the whales crazy,’ this one seems pretty chill.”
Showing off his lack of self-awareness, Whitehouse had the temerity to accuse Ric Grenell, the leader of the Kennedy Center, of impropriety. In actuality, he passed the first balanced budget in decades and promoted patriotic, faith-driven events. But still Sen. Whitehouse has attacked Grenell, despite the fact that it is he rather than Grenell who faces credible allegations of serious corruption.
Smashing the allegations, Grenell said, “@SenWhitehouse just stepped in it. He attacked the Kennedy Center with outrageous claims. So we responded with the facts. Oh boy – the facts are so clear: the NYT and the Senator’s letter writer are going to be embarrassed. We have a balanced budget, we’ve raised a whopping $117 MILLION under @realDonaldTrump – and FIFA has paid millions plus covered all expenses (the NYT made a gigantic mistake by assuming FIFA was a rental not a major Sponsor).”
Watch Sen. Whitehouse go berserk after his scheme got shut down:
Featured image credit: By Preiss / MSC – https://securityconference.org/mediathek/asset/sheldon-whitehouse-0840-18-02-2018/, CC BY 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69438923