Baltimore Mayor Plays the Race Card After Being Called Out on His $163,495 Taxpayer-Funded Vehicle
Despite the deeply fractured and wildly inflamed state of the current political climate, there’s actually a rather simple solution to it all.
That elusive magical elixir? Accountability.
It’s a simple concept, really: If politicians were to actually be held to account for their many (many, many) shortcomings, it would actually restore institutional trust in the American duopoly. And you can’t rebuild anything, let alone a divided country, without that baseline trust.
Alas, a cynical reader might point out that there’s a better chance that pigs will start flying than that we’ll ever see a politician take ownership of a mistake.
And this writer would ruefully agree.
Just look at this latest debacle from the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.
The 41-year-old Democrat has come under immense fire lately after allegations surfaced that he drives an obscenely expensive taxpayer-funded government vehicle.
Records obtained by local Fox affiliate WBFF-TV revealed that Scott, despite his relatively humble position as mayor, drives a 2025 Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
A Wagoneer, by the way, that costs a cool $163,495, which, as WBFF puts it, makes it “the priciest government-issued vehicle assigned to any current mayor, governor, county executive, or county commissioner/county council in the state.”
And it’s not especially close.
Compared to other government vehicles, this SUV cost taxpayers nearly twice as much as the next-most-expensive executive option. It’s more than triple the price paid for cars used by other county leaders.
While this raises a host of questions on its own — particularly regarding cost control and spending oversight — Scott made things exponentially worse for himself when he decided that the person most to blame for his inexplicably expensive SUV was … “the man.”
Just look at this master class in avoiding all accountability:
Scott had previously challenged WBFF reporters to research the cost of other government employee vehicles — a challenge the outlet was only too eager to take him up on.
“So, we looked at that, and we did those numbers, and we still found that no one reaches [even] $100,000 for a vehicle, with the exception of [Police Commissioner Richard Worley],” the reporter said during a recent conference.
(Worley is assigned a $108,242 SUV, which includes about $28,393 worth of security upgrades.)
“We’ll just stop you right there,” Scott interjected as the reporter attempted to ask her question. “We get it. We understand that your station has this, uh, severe right-wing effort underway.”
(Oh, brother.)
“We get that. But you also, uh,you guys are dragging this thing out and also not including all the facts,” Scott continued. “Uh, a vehicle that was purchased in 2023 is not the same price as 2025. Right? You have to understand that reality when you look at these inflation calendars.”
Well, Mr. Mayor, according to rough math, your $163,459 SUV from 2025 is worth about $155,000 in 2023 — still significantly higher than what your Baltimore cohorts are driving around.
But a deep-blue Democrat being bad at math is hardly anything new. And neither is this next quip from Scott, who seems to want to blame anyone and anything besides himself for his nonsensically pricey vehicle.
After continuing to deflect and use whataboutism, the reporter had had enough and simply asked the question that Scott needs to be able to answer: “How do you justify the cost of this to the taxpayers of Baltimore, the people who live here?”
“Just because you didn’t get the answer you wanted — and your racist slant — is one thing,” Scott said, before continuing to refuse to take a shred of accountability for the cost of his vehicle.
What makes this episode so revealing isn’t just the sticker shock of a $163,000 SUV — it’s how reflexively and lazily the mayor tried to dodge responsibility for it.
Instead of offering a clear justification or admitting the purchase looks bad, Scott reached for the oldest crutch in modern politics: Cry bias, cry motive, cry “racist,” and hope the question goes away. That is the exact opposite of what competent leaders do.
Asking an elected official to explain why he’s riding around in the most expensive government-issued vehicle in the state is not an attack (and it’s certainly not racist) — it’s the bare minimum of democratic accountability.
Reducing every uncomfortable question to race is the epitome of shallowness. It cheapens real concerns about racism while teaching the public that scrutiny itself is illegitimate if it’s inconvenient.
Baltimore doesn’t need theatrics or finger-pointing; it needs a mayor who can look taxpayers in the eye and explain his decisions without hiding behind slogans and smears. If accountability is the price of public office, Brandon Scott’s response shows just how unwilling some politicians are to pay it.
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