During the Democratic presidential debate Thursday evening, MSNBC moderator Chuck Todd picked a question offered by a viewer and pointedly asked Hillary Clinton if she would release the transcripts of her paid speeches to giant investment bank Goldman Sachs. Todd then broadened the question, asking: “Are you willing to release the transcripts of all your paid speeches?”
It was the second time Clinton has been asked if she would release transcripts of the paid speeches she gave behind closed doors. When I asked her in Manchester, New Hampshire, two weeks ago, Clinton simply laughed and turned away.
Asked this time on network television, she said, “I will look into it. I don’t know the status, but I will certainly look into it.”
Watch the video below:
Clinton went on to say that she made money from paid speeches by talking “about issues that had to do with world affairs,” suggesting she gave a boilerplate talk. But according to accounts offered by several attendees of one of the Goldman Sachs speeches, Clinton reassured the crowd, telling them that banker-bashing was unproductive and foolish.
Clinton made $675,000 for three paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, a bank that is notorious for hiring former lawmakers and using its influence in government to win access to policymakers. In total, Clinton and her husband have made over $125 million on the paid speaking circuit since 2001.
Todd noted that “there were transcription services for all of those paid speeches.”
Related:
- Hillary Clinton Laughs When Asked if She Will Release Transcripts of Her Goldman Sachs Speeches
- Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Brawl Over His “Insinuation” That She’s Corrupt
- Top Hillary Clinton PAC Donation Amounts to 222,000 Bernie Sanders Donations
- Elizabeth Warren Challenges Clinton, Sanders to Prosecute Corporate Crime Better Than Obama
- Hillary Clinton Made More in 12 Speeches to Big Banks Than Most of Us Earn in a Lifetime
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We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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