Baird’s trip to Galapagos Islands the subject of Inside Edition exposé

Rep. Brian Baird (D-Vancouver)

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird’s taxpayer-funded June trip to the Galapagos Islands, reported at the time by The Columbian, was profiled on the TV program “Inside Edition” Monday.

A producer and correspondent went undercover as tourists to investigate the trip, deploying hidden cameras to capture members of Congress and their guests staying in “plush seaside suites” at the Red Mangrove Inn, one of the islands’ most expensive resorts, where they enjoyed fine wine and sushi dinners, cycled and took in a little shopping, according to an Inside Edition press release.

Baird, who chairs a House Science and Technology subcommittee, led the trip. His wife, Rachel Nugent, accompanied him, paying her own way except for the cost of the military fight to Ecuador.

Toward the end of the trip, according to the release, the program’s producer approached Baird and his wife while they were out shopping for jewelry one evening and recorded the following conversation:

Producer: “You guys down on vacation?”

Baird: “No, we’re kind of doing a science tour of the place. It’s sort of a vacation, sort of work.”

Producer: “Really?”

Baird: “It’s not a bad place to do both.”

Inside Edition correspondent Matt Meagher reported that the tsunami warning center the group had planned to visit does not exist, and that some of the scientists that members met with had to be flown to Ecuador from Washington to explain the work they were doing on climate change.

Baird last Friday told The Columbian that he tried in vain to explain to the show’s producer how valuable the trip was to the five committee members. He said they got first-hand exposure to issues including the spread of invasive species, ocean acidification and El Niño.

But the Vancouver Democrat, who is running for a sixth term representing Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, said he didn’t have much luck getting that message across.

The producer’s blunt response: “That’s not the story we’re doing.”