So the new Bernie Sanders attack that seems to be all abuzz…. everything is that Hillary Clinton was paid $225,000 each for three speeches to Goldman Sachs. This supposedly shows that she’s “in the tank” for Wall Street, or “owes” Goldman something for the payments. But the reality is that famous people, whether former politicians, journalists, authors or other celebrities are often paid tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands for speeches.
Many of these people are in no position to give political favors of any kind. So in answer to “do you honestly think that someone would pay a quarter of a million dollars to hear a politician speak, and not expect something in return?” the answer is obviously YES.
The answer to ”You think that amount of money isn't reciprocated in any fashion, and is merely because hearing HRC talk is worth that amount?” is clearly YES
Colin Powell www.bloomberg.com/… Al Gore www.bloomberg.com/... and Condi Rice get paid $100k-$200k to speak and there is ZERO prospect of them being back in govt. What exactly do you think the people paying them are "expecting"?
Madeline Albright www.washingtonpost.com/... , also with no prospect of delivering political favors makes a minimum of $50,000 for a speech. George W. Bush gets at least $150,000. Reagan was making millions after he left office with everyone knowing he was losing his memory and with no family members likely to enter powerful office. www.forbes.com/...
Companies pay famous figures to give speeches, they pay former politicians with no prospect of giving them anything, they pay famous journalists like Anderson Cooper $200k, what's he gonna give them? www.washingtonspeakers.com/… They pay famous people like Gloria Steinhem thousands what's she offering?
The fact is Hillary is the most famous woman in the world, she commands a high price on the speaking circuit. Companies pay all kinds of famous people hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches; many who aren’t even in a position to give any political favors.
So any insinuation that Hillary getting paid for speeches necessarily implies some quid pro quo when this is actually a common thing companies pay for is… absolute garbage.
Its dishonest, and Sanders’ campaign knows this.