During the lest Democratic debate on January 17, Hillary Clinton made several populist comments that aimed to show she is "one of the people" and that, like all other candidates, she would aggressively pursue not only bank fraud, but would go after bankers themselves. As we tweeted at the time, these were some of her more prominent soundbites:
- "no bank should be too big to fail and no individual too powerful to jail"
- "I am going to defend president Obama for taking on Wall Street and getting results"
- "I go after the big banks, I am the one the hedge funds are up against"
- "we are at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street"
And then there is the reality: as none other than the NYT reported two days ago, Goldman Sachs alone paid Hillary $675,000 for three speeches in three different states, a fact Hillary's main challenger, Bernie Sanders, has highlighted repeatedly.
As the topic of her speeches, covered her extensively over the past year, has gained prominence, on Friday, Clinton was asked by New Hampshire Public Radio how the “average person should view the hefty speaking fees?”
“I spoke to a wide array of groups who wanted to hear what I thought about the world coming off of my time as secretary of state,” Clinton said, defending her decision to make money from speaking fees. “I happen to think we need more conversation about what’s going on in the world.”
Very well paid conversations as the following list of her 92 private speeches raking in $21.7 million in just the past three years reveals:
Of course, calling these "speeches" a bribe and payment for future goodwill, would not look very good for a candidate who is so desperate to appear as "one of the people" so Hillary decides to pander to the stupidity of Americans: “I think groups that want to talk and ask questions and hear about that are actually trying to educate themselves because we’re living in a really complicated world.”
But at the end of the day, the question is whether Hillary - the person many believe is the most likely next US president - promised banks, and especially Goldman Sachs, something very different from what he is telling the American people now.
In an attempt to get some clarity, the Intercept's Lee Fang, approached Hillary after she spoke at a town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday, and asked her if she would release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs.
Her response: "ha ha ha ha ha"
http://player.vimeo.com/video/152786370