2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumFirms that paid for Clinton speeches have government interests (AP - Today)
Firms that paid for Clinton speeches have government interests
April 21, 2016 3:51 PM
By The Associated Press
It's not just Wall Street banks. Most companies and groups that paid Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to speak between 2013 and 2015 have lobbied federal agencies in recent years, and more than one-third are government contractors, an Associated Press review has found. Their interests are sprawling and would follow Clinton to the White House should she win election this fall.
The AP's review of federal records, regulatory filings and correspondence showed that almost all the 82 corporations, trade associations and other groups that paid for or sponsored Clinton's speeches have actively sought to sway the government lobbying, bidding for contracts, commenting on federal policy and in some cases contacting State Department officials or Clinton herself during her tenure as secretary of state.
Presidents are not generally bound by many of the ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations that apply to non-elected executive branch officials, although they are subject to laws covering related conduct, such as bribery and illegal gratuities. Clinton's 94 paid appearances over two years on the speech circuit leave her open to scrutiny over decisions she would make in the White House or influence that may affect the interests of her speech sponsors.
Rival presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and Republican critics have mocked Clinton over her closed-door talks to banks and investment firms, saying she is too closely aligned to Wall Street to curb its abuses. Sanders said in a speech in New York that Clinton earned an average of about $225,000 for each speech and goaded her for declining to release transcripts.
~Snip~
The AP review identified at least 60 firms and organizations that sponsored Clinton's speeches and lobbied the U.S. government at some point since the start of the Obama administration. Over the same period, at least 30 also profited from government contracts. Twenty-two groups lobbied the State Department during Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. They include familiar Wall Street financial houses such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., corporate giants like General Electric Co. and Verizon Communications Inc., and lesser-known entities such as the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and the Global Business Travel Association.
Read more:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/firms-that-paid-for-clinton-speeches-have-u-s-gov-t-interests-1.11717593
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)It's not good for me.
think
(11,641 posts)Double chocolate fudge, Strawberry, Wildberry, Pralines and Cream, Butter Pecan, Maples Walnut....
msongs
(67,407 posts)mooseprime
(474 posts)Skwmom
(12,685 posts)in consulting AND speaking fees when she was SOS.
think
(11,641 posts)CONOR FRIEDERSDORF JUL 31, 2015
The Wall Street Journals eyebrow-raising story of how the presidential candidate and her husband accepted cash from UBS without any regard for the appearance of impropriety that it created.
~Snip~
The article adds that there is no evidence of any link between Mrs. Clintons involvement in the case and the banks donations to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, or its hiring of Mr. Clinton. Maybe its all a mere coincidence, and when UBS agreed to pay Bill Clinton $1.5 million the relevant decision-maker wasnt even aware of the vast sum his wife may have saved the bank or the power that she will potentially wield after the 2016 presidential election.
But even that wouldnt make accepting the $1.5 million excusable.
If youre Bill Clinton and your wife has recently intervened, in her capacity as a cabinet secretary, to help a giant corporation avert a significant threat to its bottom-line, the very least you could do, if only to avoid the appearance of impropriety, is to avoid negotiating seven-figure paydays with that same corporation. This is particularly jaw-dropping because ultra-wealthy Bill Clinton has virtually unlimited opportunities to give lucrative speeches to any number of audiences not directly implicated by decisions that his wife made as secretary of state....
Read more:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/hillary-helps-a-bankand-then-it-pays-bill-15-million-in-speaking-fees/400067/
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)quid pro quo; coal plants in S. Africa, arms to Algeria, etc......
Someone needs to compile a chronology of donations and State decisions and actions
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)how banana republic of us.
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)secretary of state. So she made the money after she left the state dept. Isn't that what Jeb Bush did? Cashed in after he left office from people that had been awarded business while he was governor? Of course, Clinton is a woman, so pointing out the facts might just be viewed as sexist.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)but thanks for playing
Start here, it is a good read
http://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/corruption_perceptions_index_2014_united_states_scores_well_but_lags_many_o
And by the way, I expect our index to go down as the years go by, just as our freedom of the press, the real thing, not the theory, has gone down as well.
https://rsf.org/en/ranking
And by the way, that is lower than last year.
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)la corrupcion somos todos
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)hour or so ago and was intent on finding and posting.
Sky Masterson
(5,240 posts)We are in deep doodoo, my friends.
Madam Secretary has avalanches of stuff that they can mine from that plays well in commercials.
Imagine Donald Trump using this in his campaign.
Here is what it might sound like:
"Crooked Hillary, Shes Crooked folks, tremendously crooked.
You know what she does folks, and it's dirty dirty. She goes among these Democrats and acts like shes just like Bernie on this.
And Bernie, The Socialist. I don't like him but we agree , and he's right on this folks. Crooked Hillary gets paid tremendous amounts
of money and then these losers come in and are paid back on their investments, she winks, they wink, and walk out with government contracts. It's bad folks. But We are gonna change it folks! 7/11 was a part time job"
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)The really big companies that people hate are likely giving more to GOPers.
BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)"Res ipsa loquitor" - the thing speaks for itself.