Call it Air Pelosi.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer money on private jets since 2020, even though she often describes climate change as an “existential” threat and says the U.S. has a “moral” obligation to solve it, according to a new report.
“According to campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission, Pelosi’s campaign paid a Virginia-based private aviation provider, Advanced Aviation Team, over $437,000 between October 2020 and December 2021 and over $65,000 to Clay Lacy Aviation, a California-based private jet provider,” Fox News reported on Monday.
Pelosi, who will run for re-election again this year at age 82, lead a 21-member congressional delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November, where she said: “For me, it’s a religious thing. I believe this is God’s creation, and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards.”
“We must face the existential threat of our time: the climate crisis,” Pelosi said in January 2019 in her opening address to Congress. “The entire Congress must work to put an end to the inaction and denial of science that threaten the planet and the future.”
Later that year, Pelosi flew out with 13 other Democrats on a smoke-spewing jet or three, burning that evil fossil fuel, heading 3,781 miles across the Atlantic to the United Nations COP25 climate change conference in Madrid.
The conference, which drew 25,000 people and 1,500 journalists, sought to “place financial penalties on global commercial aviation to stop people flying and making ‘unnecessary contributions to atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution,’” Breitbart reported at the time.
In January 2019, then-President Donald Trump denied Pelosi’s request to use a military aircraft for a congressional delegation trip to Afghanistan. “Trump’s decision prompted Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton to revisit Mrs. Pelosi’s travel habits; the watchdog organization has tracked her use of military jets for more than a decade through Defense Department documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests,” The Washington Times reported. The outlet added:
“For years we have been exposing the lucrative travel our leaders enjoy at taxpayer expense. We have long noted Pelosi’s abuse of the perks of public office that granted her access to luxury military travel,” Mr. Fitton wrote in an op-ed titled “Air Pelosi” for Fox News, providing numerous examples.
“We reported in 2010 that Pelosi’s jet travel cost the Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol,” Mr. Fitton said, noting that the average cost on an international congressional delegation trip was $228,563.33.
During the administration of George W. Bush, Pelosi requested regular access to an Air Force passenger jet, but that created a debate over whether she would get the large aircraft she wants and who she may take as passengers.
At the time, one Republican called it a “flying Lincoln Bedroom,” and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-NC) labeled the speaker’s plane “Pelosi One.”
“This is a bullet point to a larger value — Pelosi’s abuse of power continues,” McHenry said. “It began when the speaker denied minority rights to Republicans … and now she’s exploiting America’s armed forces and taxpayers for her own personal convenience.”
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to [email protected].