Lost in the media storm around Trump’s disgusting comments caught on tape are the “damaging” Hillary Clinton speeches to Wall Street, etc. that were recently published by Wikileaks. I put the word “damaging” in quotes because that adjective is almost always used in news articles discussing the published excerpts.
I’ve been reading all the articles that describe the most “damaging” sections of her speeches and I just don’t get what is so damaging. What am I missing? Here are the most common excerpts being highlighted by media:
“My father loved to complain about big business and big government, but we had a solid middle class upbringing. We had good public schools. We had accessible health care. We had our little, you know, one-family house that, you know, he saved up his money, didn't believe in mortgages. So I lived that,” she said in the speech. “And now, obviously, I'm kind of far removed because the life I've lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy, but I haven't forgotten it.”
What is so wrong with the above? This is a sincere question, not facetious, what am I missing??? She is stating she grew up middle class, has been far removed from that life for a while due to her and Bill’s success, but she hasn’t forgotten her middle class upbringing. Um….that’s “damaging”?
Another speech excerpt that is being touted as a “bombshell” is the following:
"My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere,” Clinton told a Brazilian bank in 2013. She added, “We have to resist, protectionism, other kinds of barriers to market access.”
Not exactly shocking that Hillary has supported free trade in the past. Her public support of TPP being a good example of that. How is this revealing anything that isn’t already known about Hillary Clinton?
Lastly is this one:
“You just have to sort of figure out how to — getting back to that word, ‘balance’ — how to balance the public and the private efforts that are necessary to be successful, politically, and that’s not just a comment about today,” Clinton said in a speech for the National Multi-Housing Council on April 23, 2013. “It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be. But if everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.”
Politicians maintain a public and private position? I’m shocked!!! Shocked I tell you!!! I mean, who doesn’t already know that every politician already does this? What is relevant is the extent to which a politician is the same privately as they are publicly, some much worse than others, but this is not exactly a newsflash.
So, sincerely, what am I missing?
