Hillary gets tripped up again when asked questions about her wealth

Bill and Hillary Clinton
All about image.

Via Post Politics:

Hillary Rodham Clinton defended scrutiny on her and her husband’s personal wealth by contrasting herself in an interview published Sunday with other multimillionaires who are β€œtruly well off.”

The comment immediately drew scorn from Republicans, who have highlighted a series of stumbles the former secretary of state and potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate has made on her book tour this month when talking about her personal fortune and six-figure speaking fees.

In anΒ interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Clinton was asked whether she could be a credible champion for fighting income inequality in the United States despite her wealth.

β€œBut they don’t see me as part of the problem,” she told the paper, β€œbecause we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names; and we’ve done it through dint of hard work.” The Guardian wrote that Clinton let off β€œanother burst of laughter” in answering the question, suggesting that she found the question β€œpainful.”

Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have earned well over $100 million giving paid speeches and writing books since leaving the White House in 2001.

[…]

Still, mentioning that she pays taxes as a defense of her wealth is striking considering thatΒ Bloomberg News reported last weekΒ that the Clintons use β€œfinancial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S. households in wealth” to shield some of their wealth from standard estate taxes.

Hillary Clinton’s speaking fee is $200,000 or more – and although the advance for her latest book, β€œHard Choices,” has not been released, she received an $8 million advance for her first memoir, β€œLiving History.”

Like I wrote in my previous post on this issue, I have no quarrel with the Clintons making a lot of money. Β And wanting to keep as much of it as possible. I do, however, take offense to her acting like she’s not “truly well off”, saying one thing and doing something different when it comes to their taxes, and suggesting that in the past – after their time in the White House – that she and the former President were “dead broke” when she knows good and danged well they weren’t. Β 

This is a lame attempt by her as trying to come off as just an ordinary “woman of the people”, and she’s failing miserably. Β She should be relieved that this is happening so early on before the 2016 campaign really gets ramped up, because most people are likely to forget what she said. Β That is, unless the Republican contenders for President see fit to remind the American people again (hint hint) ….

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