The Washington Free Beacon's report on Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) and her private plane that followed her around during her recent RV tour certainly took off.
McCaskill embarked on a "Veterans for Claire" tour last month in her RV nicknamed "Big Blue." The plot thickened when the Free Beacon's Brent Scher, using public flight information, reported her multi-million-dollar single-engine turboprop—the "Cadillac" of such planes according to MSNBC's Brian Williams—followed the same path as her RV around Missouri.
Although McCaskill complained to Politico the story was "not accurate," she actually went further than the Free Beacon's original report in confirming she did in fact ride on the plane.
"I added some stops with the use of the plane, but I was on the RV so much that the broken drawer drove me crazy," McCaskill said, adding that "I even lost an iPad around a corner on the RV."
She went on to say she never tried to hide her use of the plane and said, ""Paying on my own dime to visit more Missouri veterans is not something I’m going to apologize for."
This week, the plane story has been covered on television by local Missouri stations, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, in addition to numerous online outlets. President Donald Trump's tweet mocking her over the plane drew even more widespread coverage.
Trump called her "so phony" and offered his full endorsement to Missouri Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley in his general election battle against McCaskill. She is one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in the 2018 cycle, seeking a third term in a state Trump carried handily in 2016.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1006992524366503941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news-leader.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Felections%2F2018%2F06%2F13%2Fso-phony-president-trump-slams-claire-mccaskill-flying-plane-part-rv-tour%2F699551002%2F
The National Republican Senatorial Committee made a computer game out of the saga at FlyAirClaire.com.
Liberal "Late Night" host Seth Meyers even made a joke out of it, quipping her apology for using the plane was to write "My Bad" in skywriting.