30-seat jet that cost $25,000 to fly him from washington, d.c. and philadelphia. those are just 135 miles apart. then last night another politico report finding price traveled by private plane at least 24 times since may at a price tag in total exceeding $300,000. and that s in just four months. now seeking to justify the costs an hhs spokesperson told the washington post today, this is secretary price getting outside of d.c., making sure he s connected with the real american people. an eight-year hhs veteran who left in january tweeting today, as former director of scheduling at hhs during obama admin, i can confirm this is a crazy departure from precedent. and now we ll see if the inspector general for hhs agrees. their office telling nbc today, oig is conducting a review of secretary price s federal travel using chartered aircraft. review focuses on whether the travel complied with federal travel regulations and may
programs, getting value for spending is incredibly important, he said, price took a private plane to get to that meeting where he said that, which was one stop on a five-state sprint of charter travel that cost $50,000. have they responded to you about how they square this sort of message with this expenditure? well, the message that we have in our reporting is basically the message that we ve heard from them, chris. we first brought the story to them on monday. it took them over 24 hours to decide what they wanted to say in response to us. and the statement has been pretty consistent throughout. first, that tom price needs these charter jets because of hurricane emergency travel, or other public health emergencies. i m not sure an industry conference in san diego or in aspen, colorado, or opioids announcement in philadelphia even is a public health emergency that s urgent, requires a charter jet. the story has now evolved to at one point price missed a commercial jet and that s why