Ben Carson Cancels Order For $31,000 Dining Room Table

Ben Carson comes to his senses, but questions still remain about his family seeming to benefit from his position in government.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has canceled an order for a $31,000 dining room table for his office:

HUD Secretary Ben Carson will cancel an order for a $31,561 dining set after the cost of the furniture drew criticism.

“At the request of the Secretary, the agency is working to rescind the order for the dining room set,” HUD spokesman Raphael Williams told POLITICO Thursday.

The agency’s purchase of chairs, a table and hutch for Carson’s office came to light after a whistleblower complaint about the secretary’s redecorating budget. Carson eventually spent $3,373to replace the drapes in his office and replaced some of his furniture with upholstered chairs and sofas stored in HUD’s basement.

According to Williams, HUD career staff separately decided, without consulting the secretary, to replace the meeting table and chairs in the office, which were purchased in 1967 and beyond repair.

Yesterday’s report on the purchase had initially gone without comment from the White House, but later news reports described senior aides to the President as being “furious” with Carson and a decision that appears to have been made without any consideration for either the optics of the situation or the fact that it failed to follow proper procedure. This purchase was separate and apart from other reports that have shown Carson’s family as being closely involved in day-to-day operations at the department, and in at least one case, personally benefiting from the elder Carson’s status. Those matters are currently under investigation by the Department’s Inspector General, whether this matter will be added to the list notwithstanding the cancelation of the order remains to be seen.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. teve tory says:

    someone pointed out, the things that really anger trump are when his subordinates assume they can get their beaks wet too.

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  2. teve tory says:

    “Our whole raison d’etre is to let the Kochs, the Waltons, exxon, the banks, wall street, raid the treasury for billions, putting the resulting debt on all americans, and we can’t even get some fancy plane rides and boardroom tables as payback? how is that EVEN fair?”

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  3. Mark Ivey says:

    Poor’s have no idea on how hard it is to move ones buttocks from a Mid-Century Modern Herman Miller 670 Lounge Chair with Ottoman by Charles Eames to a disgusting Government Services Administration approved High Back Mesh Chair.

    5