State Department Spent $52,701 on Curtains for Nikki Haley’s Residence

[Snake]

WASHINGTON — The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley’s official residence as ambassador to the United Nations, just as the department was undergoing deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring.

The residence, in a new building on First Avenue, has spectacular views, and Ms. Haley is the first ambassador to live in it. For decades, her predecessors lived in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. But after the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance company with a murky ownership structure, the State Department decided in 2016 to find a new home for its top New York diplomat because of security concerns.

The government leased the apartment, just blocks from the delegation’s offices, with an option to buy, according to Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama administration. The full-floor penthouse, with handsome hardwood floors covering large open spaces stretching nearly 6,000 square feet, was listed at $58,000 a month.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/us/politics/nikki-haley-curtains.html

[Snake]

The curtains themselves cost $29,900, while the motors and hardware needed to open and close them automatically cost $22,801, according to the contracts. Installation took place from March to August of last year, during Ms. Haley’s tenure as ambassador.

Ms. Haley’s curtains are more expensive than the $31,000 dining room set purchased for the office of Ben Carson, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That purchase became so controversial that President Trump considered firing Mr. Carson, though the spending rules covering agency chiefs are different from those for ambassadors.

While Ms. Haley’s curtains were being ordered and installed, Rex W. Tillerson, the administration’s first secretary of state, had frozen hiring, pushed out many of the department’s most senior diplomats and proposed cutting the department’s budget by 31 percent. In embassies around the world, projects were eliminated, jobs were left unfilled and the delegation to last year’s United Nations General Assembly meeting was slashed.

“How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs cannot be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $50,000 on a customized curtain system for the ambassador to the U.N.?” asked Brett Bruen, a White House official in the Obama administration.

But Mr. Kennedy defended the purchase, saying that it would probably be used for years and that it was needed for both security and entertaining purposes.

“All she’s got is a part-time maid, and the ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Pompeo will soon receive government housing himself, after the Defense Department agreed to rent him a flag officer’s home on a military base in the Washington area. The State Department said the unusual move would save on security costs. Mr. Pompeo is one of the few members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet of modest means.

While the State Department would not say where Mr. Pompeo’s house would be located, a United States official and a former top State Department official said he would live at Fort Myer, a small Army post near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

[racer254]

This blatant wasteful spending really needs to stop.  When will the people wake up.  Start demanding they start doing remote meetings etc.

[Angry ginger]

SMH that this is the kind of shit that becomes news . TBH that kind of cost ins a 6000sf apartment thats prob worth tens of millions is of no real concern nor unexpected.  it's 1 month of rent on the place.  Guess they expect her to go to walmart and buy some curtains there 

[jtssrx]

Critics going NUTS over Nikki Haley’s $52k curtains, but they MISSED one very important detail!!

SEP. 14, 2018 9:51 AM BY THE RIGHT SCOOP • NO COMMENTS

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The New York Times ran a story this week about Nikki Haley having $52,000 curtains in her official residence at the United Nations:

In the article they say…

The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley’s official residence as ambassador to the United Nations, just as the department was undergoing deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring.

The residence, in a new building on First Avenue, has spectacular views, and Ms. Haley is the first ambassador to live in it. For decades, her predecessors lived in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. But after the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance company with a murky ownership structure, the State Department decided in 2016 to find a new home for its top New York diplomat because of security concerns.

The government leased the apartment, just blocks from the delegation’s offices, with an option to buy, according to Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama administration. The full-floor penthouse, with handsome hardwood floors covering large open spaces stretching nearly 6,000 square feet, was listed at $58,000 a month.

While ambassadors around the world are given residences, there are only two such residences in the United States — one for Ms. Haley and the other for her deputy.

It sounds insane, right? I mean who spends $52k on curtains?

Well the NY Times finally tells us…and it’s NOT Nikki Haley or the Trump administration:

A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.

As Fox News points out…

But the paper didn’t mention until the sixth paragraph that Haley’s spokesman said the Trump administration had no input in the purchase decision.

You can see how the NY Times titled the article and then waited until the sixth paragraph to mention that Nikki Haley nor Trump had anything to do with the purchase. It’s like they wanted to mislead readers who they know only read the first few paragraphs.

And of course, critics went nuts:

Some online critics apparently missed that detail.

“How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs cannot be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $50,000 on a customized curtain system for the ambassador to the U.N.?” Brett Bruen, a White House official in the Obama administration, told the Times.

“When @nikkihaley’s not busy rejecting the idea of universal human rights, she’s busy spending $52,701 of US tax payer money on curtains for her residence. Milk the people, screw the world. Fine priorities you got there,” Andrew Stroehlein, Human Rights Watch’s European Media Director, wrote in a tweet.

Oh that’s rich coming from an Obama White House official.

Even David Hoggface got in on the criticism:

There’s plenty more where that came from.

But many are not happy at how the NY Times engineered this outrage, including Marco Rubio, who ripped the New York Times a few minutes ago:

Marco Rubio

 

✔@marcorubio

 

 

Want an example of subtle ways media pushes their bias? See this completely false & misleading headline about ⁦@nikkihaley. They are not “her curtains” & buried deep in story is the fact that this purchase was made under Obama administration. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/us/politics/nikki-haley-curtains.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share …

8:53 AM - Sep 14, 2018

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Yep. Headlines are important and the biased NY Times did this one intentionally.

And they wonder why Americans no longer trust the media. This is a prime example.

Other news outlets are running with what the NY Times started:

 

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Gizmodo

 

✔@Gizmodo

 

 

State Department spent $52,000 on curtains for Nikki Haley's apartment http://gizmo.do/kS0JYqj 

7:33 AM - Sep 14, 2018

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The Hill

 

✔@thehill

 

 

State Dept spent more than $52,000 on Nikki Haley’s apartment curtains: report http://hill.cm/eyO2dKx 

7:51 AM - Sep 14, 2018

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This headline isn’t even misleading. It’s an outright lie:

New York Post

 

✔@nypost

 

 

Nikki Haley spent $52,700 in State Department money on “customized and mechanized” curtains for her luxury apartment https://nyp.st/2Nbcsi2 

7:49 AM - Sep 14, 2018

Nikki Haley spent over $52K in State Department money on curtains

Nikki Haley spent $52,700 in State Department money on “customized and mechanized” curtains for her luxury apartment across from the United Nations on the East Side of Manhattan, a report

nypost.com

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[racer254]

1 minute ago, Angry ginger said:

SMH that this is the kind of shit that becomes news . TBH that kind of cost ins a 6000sf apartment thats prob worth tens of millions is of no real concern nor unexpected.  it's 1 month of rent on the place.  Guess they expect her to go to walmart and buy some curtains there 

Exactly,  Why does she need a place where rent is 58 grand a month? 

[Angry ginger]

dup

Edited September 14, 2018 by Angry ginger

[Pete]

Oops

[Angry ginger]

Just now, racer254 said:

Exactly,  Why does she need a place where rent is 58 grand a month? 

it's NYC so thats not out of line given her position.  

[Highmark]

All done during the Obama admin.    

Media and leftards are so fixated on pushing an anti Trump narrative normal journalistic investigating goes out the window.   

[racer254]

14 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

it's NYC so thats not out of line given her position.  

FFS, 58 grand for a month's rent is out of line for any public taxpayer paid position.

[Anler]

Maybe they are bullet proof, liberal harrassment proof curtains. Totally necessary in todays political climate. 

[Angry ginger]

1 minute ago, racer254 said:

FFS, 58 grand for a month's rent is out of line for any public taxpayer paid position.

sure lets have her live in some tenament in Harlem,  that would be real safe.  NYC is an expensive place and providing ambassadors with a place to live and entertain is something that we do and not unrealistic.  

[Anler]

20 minutes ago, racer254 said:

Exactly,  Why does she need a place where rent is 58 grand a month? 

Protection from liberals. 

[Snake]

 

[SnowRider]

This is an issue for the dumb like Doe Dumber.  IDGAF about her curtains 

Edited September 14, 2018 by SnowRider

[Mileage Psycho]

Window treatments are not cheap, especially powered treatments.

I wonder if her window treatments are tied into a BAS so they can do daylight harvesting and pick up radiant heat gains  

[Snake]

30 minutes ago, Mileage Psycho said:

Window treatments are not cheap, especially powered treatments.

I wonder if her window treatments are tied into a BAS so they can do daylight harvesting and pick up radiant heat gains  

Well now that we know The Halfrican foot the bill, I'd say there are probably 25 different sycophants reporters trying to now JUSTIFY the expense.

Thanks for filling that hole Vin.

[SnowRider]

9 minutes ago, Snake said:

Well now that we know The Halfrican foot the bill, I'd say there are probably 25 different sycophants reporters trying to now JUSTIFY the expense.

Thanks for filling that hole Vin.

Poor Moe....full time racist worshipping a racist....

Edited September 14, 2018 by SnowRider

[Snake]

[racer254]

4 hours ago, SnowRider said:

This is an issue for the dumb like Doe Dumber.  IDGAF about her curtains 

Probably because you are an abuser as well.  What % of your sales are helped by public tax dollars?

[SnowRider]

1 minute ago, racer254 said:

Probably because you are an abuser as well.  What % of your sales are helped by public tax dollars?

Not enough......

[Snoslinger]

i fucking knew there was an underlying reason snake posted this

[Jimmy Snacks]

1 hour ago, racer254 said:

Probably because you are an abuser as well.  What % of your sales are helped by public tax dollars?

You sound  pretty emotional about this racer...maybe save your outrage for the hurricane coverage.

[BOHICA]

When they figure which states are “givers and takers” of tax dollar are are things like 5 figure rents and the other waste for political figures considered in the calculations and methodology?