Stunning: Obama Girls Listed As “Senior Staff” on White House Aircraft Passenger Manifest for Michelle Obama’s Expensive Taxpayer-Funded South Africa Trip
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 3, 2011
First Lady Michelle Obama and others on African safari in June 2011... how much did taxpayers pay for this unnecessary trip, which looks a lot like a vacation?
More stunning — and a bit sickening — than I would have ever imagined.
Many questions have been asked about First Lady Michelle Obama’s extravagant, half-a-million-dollar South Africa trip earlier this summer, which included a number of family members and a pricey safari adventure that included lodging at a five-star hotel. Questions asked have been what was the purpose/justification of this expensive trip, WHO in the heck is footing the bill, and just how much was the bill. Taxpayers, of course, will be paying for the FLOTUS goodwill mission-family vacation — that’s a depressing given during the bleed-the-taxpayers-dry Marxist Age of Obama. Critics have speculated that this controversial trip to Botswana cost between a whopping $500,000 and $800,000, but those dollar amounts have just been speculations.
But that’s not the truly stunning/sickening part for me.
Per the recently released White House Aircraft passenger manifest, designated as “sensitive but unclassified,” the Obama daughters are listed as “SENIOR STAFF” for the African trip.
SENIOR STAFF.
The Obama daughters are both minors. How can Team Obama explain away this nonsense? Malia is only 13 years old and Sasha is 10 years old. Senior staff?
Am I overreacting? Is this common White House protocol, to list the president’s children as senior staff members on a manifest? From the manifest, listed as “guests” are Leslie Robinson and Avery Robinson, Michelle’s niece and nephew, as are Carl Ray and Johnny Wright, Michelle’s makeup artist and hair stylist. Ray has accompanied her on trips before. Five members of the press who went on the trip are listed as “press.”
So why aren’t the Obama girls also listed as guests? Why isn’t Michelle’s mother, Marion Robinson, who also went on the Africa trip, listed as a guest? Is this to avoid paying for their trip expenses and instead, bill America’s taxpayers? Maybe I’m dead wrong, maybe this is all on the up and up, maybe this isn’t a bilking at all.
But it sure doesn’t smell like it.
Tom Fitton at Big Government reports on the preliminary information that has finally been released via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that was filed on June 28, 2011, Michelle Obama’s Expensive Family Trip to Africa:
Last week we obtained mission expense records and passenger manifests from the United States Air Force related to the June 21-27, 2011, trip. Judicial Watch obtained the documents pursuant to an August 19, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. It is amazing how transparent the Obama administration becomes once you sue them in a federal court!
On June 28, 2011, we filed a FOIA request seeking the mission taskings, transportation records, and passenger manifests for Michelle Obama’s Africa trip. Our FOIA lawsuit extracted some interesting information:
- According to U.S. Department of Defense’s published hourly rates for the C-32A aircraft used for the trip, we calculated the total cost to American taxpayers was $424,142 for the flight and crew. (The C-32 is a specially configured military version of the Boeing 757.) Other expenses ─ meals (off the plane), transportation, security, various services, etc. ─ have yet to be reported.
- The expense records also indicate $928.44 were spent for “bulk food” purchases on flight. Overall, during the trip, 192 meals were served for the 21 passengers on board.
- The passenger manifests confirm the presence of Obama’s daughter’s, Malia and Sasha on the trip. The two girls are listed as “Senior Staff.” The manifests also list Mrs. Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, and niece and nephew, Leslie and Avery Robinson, as well Mrs. Obama’s makeup and hairstylist (Carl Ray and Johnny Wright).
The professed purpose of Michelle Obama’s trip to South Africa and Botswana was to encourage young people living in the two growing democracies to become involved in national affairs; and during her scheduled stops in Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa, and in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, the First Lady used the opportunity to speak on education, health, and wellness issues.
The trip also included such tourist events as visits to historical landmarks and museums, plus a nonworking chance to send time with Nelson Mandela, a meeting that Mrs. Obama described as “surreal.” The trip ended with a private family safari at a South African game reserve before the group returned to Washington on June 27.
While the aircraft and crew expenses are now known, as stated in an analysis by White House Dossier(the blog of White House reporter Keith Koffer, writer for CongressDaily, National Journal, Roll Call and POLITICO), certain expenses incurred during the trip are difficult to assess without examining the records ‒ such as Secret Service protection, the care and feeding of staff, and pre-trip advance work done by administration officials in Africa.
From Wake up America, Obama’s Daughters Are Listed As “Senior Staff” In Order to Bilk Taxpayers for Their Travel And Vacation:
Gotta love Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, which is what it takes to make the Obama administration answer questions on how Michelle Obama spends taxpayer’s money.
Now it’s becoming clear as to why the “BHO Powers That Be” were reluctant to release this information about the FLOTUS South Africa trip — in fact, a lawsuit had to be filed in order for the cost info to be released — here’s what I wrote on that in August:
The “most transparent administration ever” won’t disclose how much FLOTUS Michelle Obama spent and billed the American public for her recent jaunt over to Africa. The $500,000-plus Africa “goodwill/safari” adventure included, in addition to her daughters, some of the First Lady’s other relatives. Some estimates have gone as high as a mind-blowing $800,000 for the trip. Reportedly, she and her entourage staying at a five-star hotel in the middle of a game preserve where rooms exceed $10,000 dollars per night racked up the cost of the “charming” African safari.
[...]
Despite a request being filed two months ago, the “White House Powers That Be” won’t release the final cost to taxpayers of the First Lady’s Africa trip.
Shame on you, Team Obama.
So, the Team Obama/federal government now has a lawsuit filed against it/them/whatever.
This may be just the tip of the iceberg — not all information on the trip has yet been released.
Could we be witnessing the beginning of “FLOTUS-Gate”? Or should it be called “Africa-Gate” or “Safari-Gate”? Leftists want to say this (and Michelle’s pricey Material Girl Spain vacation last year) are exactly like the trip with safari that First Lady Laura Bush took when she went to Africa. One significant difference is that Laura, while on her goodwill mission for AIDS, was housed in a hut sprayed with DDT that was near aluminum smelters, whereas the only place of lodging I’ve stumbled upon so far for Michelle was, as mentioned earlier, a posh, five-star, $10,000-per-night hotel. Even the most sheeple-minded of the Obama Flock should be able to discern the difference here.
For more on Laura’s African/safari trip, check out Legal Insurrection.
A majority of Americans now expect Obama to lose in his reelection — this certainly won’t help.
FLOTUS Michelle Obama, daughters Malia & Sasha, wrapped in a South African flag, and Michelle's mother Marian Robinson arrive in South Africa, June 2011
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[...] I just read a post about a couple Obama senior staff members, who just happen to be minor. You can read about this “as your stomach turns” saga. Apparently Michelle will stop at nothing when it comes to spending U.S. taxpayers money for her personal enjoyment. I guess that’s part of her Marie Antonette persona. Read it here at Frugal Cafe Blog Zone. [...]