Democratic candidate for US president Bernie Sanders says “I suspect” groups paid large speaking fees to the Clintons in order to garner political favors.
The Weekly Standard reported:
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders suggested Thursday morning that groups have paid Bill and Hillary Clinton exorbitant speaking fees in order to buy influence.
Appearing at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Christian Sciene Monitor in Washington, Sanders was asked by Ed Henry of Fox News if it was inappropriate for Bill Clinton to collect $500,000 speaking fees while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. “It’s not Bill Clinton. I have a problem with organizations that are giving out these kinds of huge honoraria. I don’t understand why they do it. I suspect that they do it to garner favors,” Sanders replied.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont who reiterated this morning that he’s a “democratic socialist,” went on to criticize Hillary Clinton’s silence on the Trans-Pacific Parternship–the trade deal currently being debated in Congress.
“Secretary Clinton, if she’s against this, we need her to speak out right now–right now,” Sanders said. “And I don’t understand how any candidate Democrat or Republican is not speaking out on that issue.”
Sanders also questioned Clinton’s judgment in voting for the Iraq war in 2002, but he seemed to pull his punches on the issue that could be Clinton’s biggest vulnerability in the Democratic primary. “I happen to believe that the vote for the war in Iraq was a horrible, horrible mistake,” Sanders said. “I’m not here to criticize the vote she cast years ago. But what does that mean in terms of your judgment in assessing information?”
