Clintons’ millions
The couple’s income may pose difficulty for Hillary’s message aimed at middle class.
WASHINGTON — To call it a profitable year for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton would be an understatement.
The couple have banked more than $25 million since the start of 2014 through giving speeches alone, a federal disclosure shows. They traveled extensively, from Los Angeles to Canada to Florida, collecting an average of $250,000 per appearance.
They collected their speaking fees from buttoned-down companies like GE and Bank of America, the lesser-known Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and a firm called Salesforce.com. The former president and his wife, a candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, hit the speaking circuit hard, appearing before audiences to deliver remarks 100 times in less than17 months.
Sometimes they could not even be at the event in person. But that did not stop the sought-after political heavyweights from capturing a windfall in speaking fees. Novo Nordisk in Mexico City paid a $125,000 honorarium towatch Hillary Clinton over satellite. The California Medical Assn. gave her $100,000 for an appearance beamed in electronically to San Diego.
She revealed the payments Friday night, as part of a campaign disclosure candidates must file within 30 days of launching a run for office. The filing also showed that sales of her newest book, “Hard Choices,” were adding considerably to the Clinton fortune. She reported collecting more than $5 million in royalties.
But it is the speaking fees that threaten to make things awkward for her on the campaign trail. The eye-popping amounts the Clintons have collected — mostly from companies with considerable business before the government — drew rebukes from political opponents.
Republicans were quick to roll out the recent video of Bill Clinton telling an NBC News reporter that collecting the fees was necessary because the family needs to pay its bills.
“The Clintons’ claim that staggering amounts of income from paid speaking fees that raise ethical questions and potential conflicts of interest is simply to ‘pay our bills’ shows how out of touch they’ve truly become,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
The disclosure is sure to be another distraction for Hillary Clinton, whois focusing her run on “everyday Americans” and has made campaign finance reform a key part of her platform. Republicans are delighting in the contrast between the ultra-wealthy Clinton and the struggling middle-class workers her campaign invites to roundtables with the candidate.
The speaking fees have been a source of unwanted attention for the Clintons in the past, which they have deflected by noting that much of the money went to their family foundation.
But lately, the foundation itself has become a magnet for controversy.
Clinton’s campaign has had to mount a spirited defense against allegations that the millions of dollars in foreign donations the foundation accepted while she was secretary of State reflect a conflict of interest. The transactions are detailed in the recently released book “Clinton Cash,” by conservative author Peter Schweizer. He notes that he did not uncover the Clintons engaging in any criminal activity.