Noem Spent $20,000 on Horse Rentals, $3,800 on Hair and Makeup for Mount Rushmore ads: Dems
Taxpayers shelled out more than $200,000 in production costs for an ad featuring fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem riding around Mount Rushmore on horseback, Democratic lawmakers revealed Monday.
The payments were made under a subcontract issued to The Strategy Group Company, as part of the controversial $220 million advertising campaign authorized by Noem that urged illegal migrants to leave the US.
“This looks like waste, fraud, and abuse to me,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said after reviewing the breakdown of the ad’s production costs.
A partial invoice provided to Welch and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) showed The Strategy Group Company spent $20,000 on horse rentals for the ad; $3,781 on hair and makeup; $52,599 on videography, photography and production vendors; $41,852 on “other vendors.”
The Strategy Group Company billed $107,405 for labor costs, and $60,000 for a “signing bonus,” according to the senators. (Read more from “Noem Spent $20,000 on Horse Rentals, $3,800 on Hair and Makeup for Mount Rushmore ads: Dems” HERE)
