Podium-gate, explained

Sarah Sanders is in crisis mode.

(Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders)

I spent two days last week in Little Rock, Arkansas — doing an event for my book. (You haven’t bought it yet? Do it!)

While I was there one thing became immediately clear to me: The entire Arkansas political world was talking about a podium that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders bought with state money. Yes, a podium.

Let me explain.

On June 8, Sanders, using a state credit card, bought a podium — it’s actually probably more accurately referred to as a lectern for you linguistic nerds out there — from an Arlington, Virginia-based company called Beckett Events LLC. She paid, roughly, $19,000 for it.

Which is a WHOLE hell of a lot of money!

On September 14, Sanders — via the state Republican party — reimbursed the state for the cost of the podium. A spokesman for the governor also made clear — in a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — that the initial purchase of the podium on a state credit card was “an accounting mistake” and noted that the podium was not just for use by Sanders but also by other Republican elected officials too.

We know all of this thanks to attorney and liberal blogger Matt Campbell, who runs the Blue Hog Report in Arkansas, and who unearthed the purchase of the podium thanks to a series of Freedom of Information Act requests.

Speaking of FOIA, this is where the story gets really interesting. On September 8, Sanders proposed sweeping changes to FOIA laws in the state — particularly as it related to the governor’s travel. (The proposal was part of a special session called by Sanders aimed at providing additional tax cuts to Arkansans.)

As the Associated Press wrote of Sanders’ proposal:

FOIA experts said the changes would severely weaken the 1967 law — signed by the state’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction — that protects the public’s access to government meetings and records.

Critics, not surprisingly, suggested that Sanders’s desire to change FOIA laws was specifically directed at Campbell — and the podium price he had unearthed. Sanders insisted the law change was designed to protecting her and her young family.

Despite the fact that Republicans hold super majorities in the state House and Senate, Sanders’ proposal was met with deep skepticism. What wound up passing was a watered-down version of what Sanders wanted — restricting only information directly related to her security.

As the New York Times wrote:

In a moment when the country’s politics have become highly polarized, supporters of the legislation, perhaps unwittingly, seemed to run into a rare slice of common ground: distrust of the motives of government officials, and resistance to a plan that would allow them to operate with less scrutiny.

The intrigue did not end there though! Late last week, Republican state Sen. Jimmy Hickey requested that a nonpartisan audit board tied to the state legislature look into the podium purchase as well as other financial records that had been kept from public view by the recently-passed law.

“I think where we are with everything that’s transpired out of this podium, I think for all involved it’s going to be better if we go back and look at all the retroactive stuff,” Hickey told the Arkansas Times Thursday. “It seems like, to me, the podium and all that have been tied together.”

Then on Friday, came news of a whistleblower — a former state employee — alleging that the governor’s office had doctored documents and refused to turn over FOIA requested information.

Tom Mars, the lawyer for the whistleblower, wrote that “his client can prove that someone in Sanders’ office altered documents that [Matt] Campbell had requested through the Arkansas FOIA and that Sanders’ office pressured another government agency to withhold from the public documents that should have been made available,” according to the Arkansas Times.

Add it all up and Sanders has a MASSIVE mess on her hands. And that mess is starting to draw national attention for two reasons:

1. Sanders is a known national figure, having been the public face (as press secretary) of then President Donald Trump

2. Sanders is widely seen to have national (aka presidential) ambitions and has even been mentioned by some people as a possible VP pick for either Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024.

(Sidebar: Sanders has NOT endorsed yet in the presidential race — despite her close ties to Trump. Which is, well, interesting!)

Now, this is Arkansas we are talking about. It’s become an overwhelmingly Republican state in the last two decades — and it will take a lot more than a controversy over a $19,000 podium to endanger her when she seeks reelection in 2026.

But, Sanders was in the process of building — or, really, refining — a national brand. And the podium story is developing into a stink that Sanders would love to be far, far away from.

Given the existence of an ongoing audit of how she has spent state money — and the existence of the whistleblower — it doesn’t seem like this story is going to disappear any time soon, however.

And, judging from the headlines over the last few days, things are going to get worse for her before they get better.