Rick Perry is blaming everyone else for the fact that he lives in a $10,000-a-month rental mansion, refusing to take responsibility for his own extravagance. In an interview with KENS 5's Jeff Vaughn of San Antonio, Perry blames his security detail, the Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Legislature for the fact that he lives in the rental mansion. That raises some questions:
Did DPS or the Texas Legislature approve the $1,001 Neiman Marcus window drapes?
Did DPS or the Texas Legislature approve a $700 clothes rack?
Did DPS or the Texas Legislature tell Rick Perry to subscribe to Food & Wine Magazine?
As usual, Rick Perry is ducking his responsibility -- wasting taxpayer dollars so he can live in an extravagant rental mansion while the state of Texas faces an $18 billion budget shortfall. That's to be expected -- though not tolerated -- from a career politician like Rick Perry, who cares only about his own election and not looking out for the future of Texas.
Watch the full interview at KENS-5 here, or watch the clip of Perry talking about the rental mansion below:
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
Vaughn: Governor, I know that you’re tied into social media. I follow you on twitter and facebook, so I went to my facebook followers and asked them if they had some questions for you. You call yourself a fiscal conservative. You know that the mansion burned down. You are spending your time in a rental mansion. Tell me if I’m wrong or right. $10,000 a month for rent. So far that’s 600,000 dollars. This person says, “Governor is that necessary to spend that much money?”
Perry: I think it’s like 9000 dollars a month, but the fact is, the dollar amount is not what’s important here. I wish the mansion hasdn’t burned down. When we were asked to move out of the Governor’s mansion downtown, Anita and I said look whatever we need to do, and then the detail, the governor’s protective detail, those are the individuals that make the decision about where we are going to live. There’s requirements about where we live, and they made those decisions.
Vaughn: Couldn’t you live in a smaller place, less expensive.
Perry: That’s upto them. If we moved closer into town -- We’re 14 mi out of town because that’s the closest place they were able to find that had the requirements. You have a substantial number of people on the detail that actually take up the bulk of that room. We’re going to live wherever the Legislature and Department of Public Safety direct us to live. So hopefully we’ll get the mansion back in shape very soon and this issue won’t be on the table.
Vaughn: How do you respond to your challenger Bill White? He says he would live in a reall nice apartment.
Perry: I say, let’s get focused on what’s really important.
