Bill Clinton Is “Not Sure [Goldman Sachs] Did Anything Illegal”

Since his recent comments that Tea Party members could launch an Oklahoma City-esque terror offensive, 90s nostalgics are clinging to the alternate universe where former president Bill Clinton is still in charge, and he’s keeping the dream alive by continuing to make policy on tv. He turned his eye to Goldman Sachs today, and he is “not sure they violated the law.”

Giving a talk with Bob Schieffer on the recent Senate hearings on Goldman Sachs’ activity during the housing crisis (and subsequent embarrassing emails released), Clinton specified that, while he did think the emails were morally damning, he was unsure of whether there was a legal case against them. While Clinton opponents will probably jump at the soundbite to prove that Democrats are just as supportive of Wall Street as they claim Republicans are, Clinton is not exactly defending them. In fact, his ultimate conclusion was that “too much of this stuff has no economic purpose, no matter who wins or who loses, and to me, that’s the bigger problem… There was no underlying merit to the transaction.”

The more interesting point in this clip is that it is the latest in a series of serious policy suggestions Clinton has tossed out in recent months, at a time during which both Democrats and President Obama appear vulnerable. There is no proving that Clinton’s increased public presence serves any purpose of undermining the current Democratic establishment– one which he ruled for most of a decade– but the louder he gets, the more of an opportunity he will give conservative opponents to use his presence as evidence that the Democratic Party is experiencing infighting.

Clinton’s Goldman comments from today, below:

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.