House Republicans on the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials sent a sternly worded letter to Amtrak CEO William Flynn on Tuesday to make it sound like something improper happened when the Biden campaign chartered a train for a whistle stop tour of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio in late September into early October.
The letter makes the devastating assertion that “The Biden campaign distributed plastic identification cards to riders designed like actual Amtrak tickets” and even tries to imply that Biden’s train held up freight shipments of PPE crucial to fighting the Coronavirus as if the GOP gives a shit about it otherwise. The subcommittees Republicans seek to “ensure that the campaign paid a full, non-discounted rate” and want those answers “no later than November 2, 2020”, naturally.
Amtrak trains can be chartered by anyone, with prices starting at $30,000 according to Amtrak’s website. Biden’s campaign reported spending $265,000 on the charter, which is probably a good thing for Amtrak “during a time of record losses” as described in the letter.