Clinton Defends Speaking Fees: We Left White House ‘Dead Broke’

In an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, presumed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defended the money she’d made on the lecture circuit since stepping down as Secretary of State at the end of President Barack Obama’s first term, as well as the fees earned by husband since leaving the White House in 2000.

“We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt,” Clinton said, in an interview set to air Monday evening. “We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy.”

“Let me put it this way,” Clinton said. “I thought making speeches for money was a much better thing than getting connected with any one group or company as so many people who leave public life do.”

According to Mother Jones, Clinton has earned at least $5 million in speaking fees since leaving office in 2013, some of that money coming from trade associations and Wall Street firms, though Clinton reminded Sawyer that many of her speaking engagements had been pro bono.

[h/t ABC News]

[Image via Dana Nalbandian / Shutterstock.com]

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