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October 19, 2017

The Honorable Mike Pence

Vice President of the United States
The White House

Of?ce of the Vice President

1600 Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Vice President Pence:

We are writing in response to your of?ce?s use of taxpayer funding to orchestrate a costly
publicity stunt at a National Football League (NFL) game on October 8th, an act which was then
employed by the Trump-Pence reelection campaign for the purpose of soliciting donations.
Given the inappropriate nature of this conduct, we strongly urge you to instruct your campaign to
reimburse the Treasury for the full cost of your travel and expenses that day.

As has been widely reported, last Sunday, you made an appearance at an NFL game in
Indianapolis, but left immediately following the playing of our national anthem. Your aides told
members of the traveling press corps that you did so in response to peaceful protests by a
growing number of NFL players against racial injustice in America, which you apparently ?nd
distasteful.

Yet, media reports indicate that pool reporters were advised not to leave their vehicles
and enter the stadium, consistent with normal procedures, but instead were told to wait in case of
an ?early departure.? This strongly suggests that your truncated visit was not a spontaneous act
of protest?as you have sought to portray it?but was instead a premeditated act conducted
solely for the purpose of generating publicity. In fact, President Trump con?rmed as much when
he posted on Twitter that he told you beforehand to stage this protest if any players kneeled.

At the very least, Congress and the American people deserve to know how much public
funding was spent on this trip and whether Trump?Pence campaign of?cials were made aware of
your intention to leave the game early. To that end, we urgently request full disclosure of the
cost of your travel to and from the game as well as any and all communications between your
staff and campaign personnel related to this matter. 

However, while such disclosures are a necessary step, we believe that preserving the
integrity of the Of?ce of the Vice President demands that you go further. That is why we urge
you to reimburse the Treasury for the full cost of your trip. Flying across the country and back at
taxpayer expense simply to enter and then immediately depart a football stadium serves no
discernible public interest. Instead, the fact that your campaign immediately sought to capitalize
on this exercise in order to solicit donations leaves the distinct impression that this trip was
purely political in nature and was unrelated to your of?cial duties.

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The health of our democracy requires that taxpayer funding is not used for campaign
purposes. Again, given the appearance of serious impropriety in this matter, we request that you
instruct the Trump-Pence campaign to immediately reimburse the Treasury for the full cost of
your wasteful, unnecessary trip to Indianapolis.

 

 

Sincerely,
129/ 
Ruben Gallego Ted Lieu 
Member of Congress Member of Congress

      

Pramila Jayapal . amie Raskin 
. Member of Congress

 
   

 

Member of Congress

 

 

 

Brendan F. Boyle
Member of Congress