RUSH: Before we get to the Hillary Clinton sound bites, I don’t think things are going as well with this book as they had planned. But that’s just my first take, just based on things I’m seeing in the news. It’s still at number two on Amazon and it had the whole Drive-By Media behind it. It’s already been marked down 40%, which is not uncommon. It’s standard operating procedure sometimes for best-sellers to be knocked down to 30%, anywhere from 15 to 30. But 40? And there are not a whole lot of people showing up at her first book signing? You have to wonder, did they not get the word out to the unions, you know, to go out there and stand in line?
Anyway, as you know, Mrs. Clinton’s in trouble because she tried to tell everybody how destitute and broke and poor and homeless she and Bill were when they left the White House. She had to walk that back, interview with Diane Sawyer. Not even Diane Sawyer swallowed it, and Diane Sawyer and swallowing — well, not even this Diane Sawyer could believe. She found out that Clinton sometimes gets 700 grand per speech, how can you claim you’re poor? So Hillary’s had to walk that back. We’ve got sound bites.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yesterday the AP had this story: “Clinton Says Pair ‘Dead Broke’ After White House — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s family was ‘dead broke’ and saddled with legal bills when she and her husband left the White House, the former first lady said in an interview that aired Monday at the start of a high-profile book tour that could precede a 2016 presidential campaign.”
Now, we have to remember here that the Clintons established a legal defense fund to help protect Bill from justice. They were in debt because of their own actions. While they were in all of this debt, though, they bought that multimillion-dollar place in Chappaqua. Now, how did they do that if they were broke? Okay, got a mortgage. Who lent them the money? And what did they promise in exchange for it?
Even Diane Sawyer, even some in the leftist media don’t even want to try to get behind this. The idea that Clintons were poor and dead broke and destitute? There’s no way. I mean, these are the people that have been out there bragging about how rich they are for the last, what, 15 years? You can’t miss it. (doing Clinton impression) “You know what? I’m not afraid of any tax cut. I don’t need one of those. I’m not afraid of any tax increase whatsoever ’cause, you know, I’m rich, I can afford it. In fact, I gotta tell you something. When I get my tax bill, I’m proud, I am happy. I have the ability to sign that check for that tax increase ’cause I am rich. I’m richer than you are.”
They’ve been out bragging about it. It was so obviously a very poor attempt to equate themselves with the hoi polloi, with the downtrodden, with the average, and it was so bad that not even their media buddies wanted to get behind it. Hillary has had to walk it back. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is the original complaint. Last night Hillary Clinton: Public and Private, ABC special, Diane Sawyer said, “It’s been reported that you’ve made $5 million making speeches and that your husband has made more than $100 million making speeches.”
HILLARY: We came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt. Uh, we had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, y’know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy. Uh, Bill has worked really hard, and it’s been amazing to me. He’s worked very hard. First of all, we had to pay off all our debts which was… You know, you had to make double the money because of — obviously — taxes, and then pay off the debts and get us houses and take care of family members.
RUSH: “Get us houses”? “Take care of family members”? You had to pay off all of your debts, most of which were accrued because of your own behavior? That legal defense fund was necessary because you lied under oath, played around with the intern in the Oval Office. You’re going to try to pass this stuff off as the result of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy having it out for you?
“Oh, us poor Clintons! We’re so broke. We’re flat broke. We’re dead broke. We had all these expenses. We had to pay for Chelsea’s education.” They’re trying to make themselves sound just like average, ordinary Americans, and it just bombed, because 700 grand per speech is the top that Bill Clinton has made, but it’s been reported he’s made $106 million in speeches over 10 or 13 years.
Hillary gets a couple hundred grand per speech.
So it wasn’t flying. Mrs. Clinton had to clarify the “dead broke” comment, and she tried that this morning back on ABC, Good Morning America. Robin Roberts said, “You said you were ‘dead broke.’ You used the word ‘struggling,’ that it wasn’t easy after you and President Clinton left the White House. When Americans are in the same situation, but they know they don’t have a book and an opportunity that you have, and they can’t go out and give speeches. Do you have any regrets in how you phrased that?”
HILLARY: I fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans today. It’s an issue that I’ve worked on and cared about my entire adult life. Bill and I were obviously blessed. Everything in life has to be put into context, and as I recall we were something like $12 million in debt and we really had to work hard, and I was in the Senate —
ROBERTS: Mmm-hmm.
HILLARY — and could not do anything to help us meet those obligations.
RUSH: Awww.
HILLARY: And I’m very grateful that my husband, who’s always been a hard worker since he was born, you know, poor… We understand what that struggle is because we had student debts, both of us, we had to pay off. We’ve had to work. I had a couple jobs in law school. He had lots of jobs.
RUSH: Oh, my God! I had forgotten how hard it was for these people. (snorts) Forgive me. I had forgotten how hard the struggle was. I had forgotten how they were down for the struggle. It totally slipped my mind! Let’s go back. It might serve us well to remember all this. They were $12 million in debt. Most of that was legal fees. What the hell else was it?
When are you spending your own money in the White House? My God, they were raising hundreds of millions in the White House! That $12 million in debt has to be legal fees. Hell, remember Charlie Trie was dropping off $250,000 here and there in S&H Green Stamps or whatever he could find? “I was in the Senate, and I couldn’t do anything to help us meet those obligations.”
Awwwwww, you were in the Senate!
They just put you there, right? You woke up one day and somebody said, “Mrs. Clinton, you’re going to the Senate.” She replies, “I had no choice! I was in the Senate. I can’t help. I’m making nothing over there in the Senate. I can’t do anything!” Harry Reid got rich in the Senate, and she did get rich in the Senate, too. This is the point. Why do you think she gets $200,000 a speech?
Paula Jones? Gennifer Flowers? Kathleen Willey? Well, maybe, actually. Could be. “I’m very grateful my husband’s always been a hard worker since he was born, you know, poor.” Oh, yeah. He was born in the sticks! A’kansaaaaas. Mrs. Clinton had to give up her whole life to go there, and that’s what this is all about: How she gave up her life. She was a Wellesley graduate, a Northeastern liberal.
The world was her oyster. She could have written her ticket. Instead, she marries the poor guy from Arkansas and goes back there and has to become the breadwinner while he’s sleeping around on her. They were really down for the struggle! “We understand what the struggle is because we had student debts, both of us, that we had to pay off. We had to work. I had a couple of jobs in law school. He had a lot of jobs.”
Student debt?
Hey, for you students out there, I know that student loan debt is a big problem, big stress. Can I tell you why your student loan debt is so high? Would you really like to know? (interruption) Can you explain it, Mr. Snerdley? Why is student loan debt so high? (interruption) That’s exactly right: Greedy colleges and universities. But you mean in terms of their exorbitant tuitions, right? (interruption)
Okay, why are the tuitions so high? (interruption) Exactly right. The tuitions have no relationship to anybody’s ability to actually pay them, just like health care no longer is related to anybody’s ability to pay it. (interruption) Well, with houses you still have a mortgage. That’s somewhat true for houses, but in the case of tuition, a college can raise tuition to whatever they want, because the government student loan program.
The student loan program is precisely why tuition costs are so high. The schools and universities have nothing to fear whatsoever in raising tuition because the government student loan program, pays it. They fill in the gap. So the government enables the very conduct that the libs run around and complain about — student loan debt, student loans, high tuition — and it’s they who have made it what it is.
(OUT 1:23.)
RUSH: Mrs. Clinton said one other thing I want to focus on here on her interview with Robin Roberts today. She said she wants to use the talent and resources she has to make sure others have the same opportunities that she had. This is an AP story. Here’s the exact paragraph. “In response to a question, Clinton told anchor Robin Roberts she wants ‘to use the talent and resources that I have to make sure’ others have the same opportunities. …
“Clinton’s remarks about helping people to find greater economic opportunities marked the second time in as many days that she suggested an interest in making a second run for the presidency in 2016.” Now, ladies and gentlemen, there’s simply no way that Mrs. Clinton’s policies can lead to advanced opportunity for anybody. Her policies are no different than Barack Obama’s.
Mrs. Clinton believes in an ever-expanding government and a shrinking private sector. She believes that whatever most people end up with is whatever government’s gonna make it possible for them to have, which is the antithesis of burgeoning and expanding personal opportunity. She simply is incapable. By virtue of her political beliefs, cultural beliefs, societal beliefs, she is incapable of putting together a set of policies which will allow individuals to prosper.
She’s no different than Bill Clinton, no different than Obama.
They can’t do it.
What they believe in stifles opportunity. It stifles growth and punishes success.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Clinton told Robin Roberts she wants to use the talent and resources that she has to make sure others have the same opportunities. The opportunities Mrs. Clinton accessed are not the same as the opportunities most everybody else envisions. You’re not gonna make 200 grand a speech. You’re not gonna be elected to the Senate. You’re not gonna have access to lobbyists and people offering to fly you all over the place. You’re not gonna have a publisher give you a $15 million advance to write a book. You’re not gonna turn $10,000 into a hundred thousand dollars in cattle futures primarily because the guy, Robert “Red” Bone, that advised her how to do that’s dead. But you couldn’t do it anyway. You’re not gonna have the same opportunity she had.
Folks, she eschews, she does not believe in the free market system. There is no way Hillary Clinton is going to be any different than Barack Obama when it comes to economic — here’s a woman who just admitted she had to go out and earn double the money because of taxes, and she doesn’t find anything wrong with that. Now, to her, earning double the money was no big deal. She’s classic. She has hers. She’s got anything she wants, any time she wants it. She does not know what life is like for people in this country today. She does not know.
Now, I know a lot of people don’t believe that. A lot of people think because she’s a Democrat, she does know about the plight of the working man, quote, unquote. But she doesn’t. She would no more know how to get by on 50, 75, whatever, $80,000 a year. She couldn’t do it. And she’s admitting it here. Dead broke? One more sound bite and that’s all I can handle for now. Then we’re gonna get back to the phones.
Clinton here, Clinton there, how many years? I’ve been doing this 25 years and for 23 of ’em the Clintons have been front and center. For every one of those 23 years a Clinton, I’ve been told, is gonna be the next president. Hacks me off. At some point everybody in politics who shames themselves ought to be sent packing, by virtue of public opinion. I don’t mean packed up and discarded and sent away. I mean, the public ought to reject.
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