NY mayor accuses Hillary Clinton of misusing taxpayer money
Source: NZPA | Published: Monday February 7, 6:05 AM
WASHINGTON, Feb 6 - Hours before United States First Lady Hillary Clinton was to announce her candidacy for the US senate from New York state, her presumptive Republican rival accused her today of using taxpayer money to cover campaign expenses.
"You are looking at maybe $US200,000 ($A315,010.24) - $US300,000 ($A472,515.36) in taxpayer money that went to pay for travel expenses all over the state and over the country, actually," New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the Fox television channel.
Although Giuliani stopped short of formally announcing his candidacy, he gave Clinton a taste of what their race would look like after campaigning begins in earnest.
"The reality is I took 14 trips over the last six months. I paid $US153,000 ($A240,982.83) dollars for those," argued Giuliani.
"Mrs Clinton took something like 50 or 60 trips. She paid only $US34,000 ($A53,551.74) dollars for it," he continued.
"That's like a couple of hundred thousand dollars missing in terms of allocations."
According to Giuliani, it cost Vice President Al Gore, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, about $US330,000 ($A519,766.89) dollars to make the same number of trips during his campaign as the first lady did.
"There is something wrong here when she takes something like five times more trips and pays five times less money, and the taxpayers are paying for that," said Giuliani, who urged the White House to release the first lady's travelling (cont)
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