Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill was supposed to be on an RV tour of Missouri. So why was her private plane following behind?

Private jets know no party lines.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) is following the jet trail of Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt with her own private plane debacle. McCaskill's private plane was seen following her purported RV tour through Missouri, conservative outlet The Washington Free Beacon reports.

It all began with a three-day "Veterans for Claire" trip around McCaskill's home state, which was supposed to happen in an RV named BigBlue, the Free Beacon reports. McCaskill is up for re-election this fall, in a state President Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2016.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But public flight tracking information obtained by the Free Beacon revealed that McCaskill's personal plane was following the RV's journey from city to city, appearing to leave just minutes after BigBlue. The plane didn't seem to be used on McCaskill's journey home to St. Louis on the last leg of the tour.

McCaskill came under fire in 2017, when she used about $7,000 in campaign funds per month to use the plane, but she has since used her own money to fuel its flights. The Free Beacon couldn't confirm whether McCaskill was actually on the plane this time around, as BigBlue made its way through the state. Still, McCaskill's campaign sent out an email asking for $5 donations to power the bus, as it apparently takes $200 to fill BigBlue's tank.

Meanwhile, by our count, McCaskill's Pilatus PC-12/45 prop plane would require a solid $2,000 to gas up. Read more at The Washington Free Beacon. Kathryn Krawczyk

Update 4:06 p.m. ET: In an interview with Politico on Tuesday, McCaskill responded to the Free Beacon report, acknowledging that she did use her private plane for part of the RV tour. "I added some stops with the use of the plane," McCaskill said, "but I was on the RV so much that the broken door drove me crazy." She said she "spent two-plus days on the RV" before the jet "picked me up at the end of one day." Read more of her comments at Politico.