Gag me with a sob story:
“If you — you have no reason to remember, but we came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt,” Clinton told ABC’s Diane Sawyer after being confronted with the fact that she makes a ridiculous amount of money on the speaking circuit.
“We had no money when we got there and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education, you know, it was not easy,” she added.
“First of all, we had to pay off all our debts,” Clinton continued, “which was, you know, he had to make double the money because of obviously taxes and then pay off the debts and get us houses and take care of family members.”
That’s an interesting answer. Sawyer’s question was not, “You’re making an absurd amount of money, why don’t you apologize?” It was, “You’re making an absurd amount of money, why would you ever want to stop just to run for president?”
But Clinton’s defensive response made more sense when Sawyer asked a follow-up question. “Do you think Americans will understand five times the median income in this country for one speech?” Sawyer asked.
“Let me put it this way,” Clinton answered. “I thought making speeches for money was a much better thing than getting connected with any one group or company, as so many people who leave public life do.”
There’s video at the link, but I won’t ask you to watch it on the same day I ran that Pelosi clip.
When the multimillionaire wife of a multimillionaire President gets bragging rights about how tough she had it in the immediate aftermath of having to pay off legal bills related to her husband’s blow jobs, it reminds me how far we’ve descended as a nation.
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