How did RNC Approve Topless Club Reimbursement?
While the Republican National Committee has made clear that its chairman Michael Steele had nothing to do with a committee expenditure that paid for an outing to a topless nightclub, the question remains of how the expense was approved in the first place, Daily Caller Publisher Neil Patel said today on Washington Unplugged.
The Daily Caller broke the story about a reimbursement of nearly $2,000 that the RNC paid to a GOP donor for expenses accrued at a bondage-themed club in Southern California. The RNC decried the story for suggesting that Steele may have been at the club.
"Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style," Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller wrote. "A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex."
In response to the RNC criticism, Patel said, "We did not say Chairman Steele was in the nightclub, and we didn't know... [The RNC] told us they were not going to go line by line through the report and discuss individual expenditures."
The RNC immediately fired the staffer responsible for the reimbursement request, but Patel said there are still unresolved questions about the story.
"What we've asked is the RNC to explain what did happen at the club and how it was approved for payment," he said. "Presumably someone makes a request for reimbursement, and then someone checks it, and then an accountant signs off on it... I'm still curious how it got through their system and actually got paid out, which I'm told it did."
While Steele had no knowledge of the incident, it is one of many event for which Steele has been the target of criticism, and could potentially hurt the RNC's fundraising.
Watch the entire discussion above, plus a look ahead to the fall midterm elections with CBS News' Anthony Salvanto and The Rothenberg Report's Stu Rothenberg.
"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.