On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” when asked about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton telling bankers behind closed doors that she wanted “open trade and open borders” according to transcripts of her leaked Wall Street speeches, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said, “There’s nothing that she hasn’t said in private that she doesn’t say in public.”
Partial transcript as follows:
WALLACE: Hillary Clinton goes into tonight’s debate hauling her own baggage. Hacked e-mails now reveal what Clinton was telling Wall Street bankers and big money speeches behind closed doors. Transcripts she refused to make public. Joining me now only on “FOX News Sunday,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. John, I promise we’ll get to the Trump tape in a moment. But, first, we need to talk about these hacked e-mails from your private account. To go back in time, let’s hear what Hillary Clinton was telling voters in New Hampshire last February.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anybody who knows me who thinks that they can influence me, name anything they’ve influenced me on. Just name one thing. I’m out here every day saying I’m going to shut them down, I’m going after them, I’m going to jail them if they should be jailed, I’m going to break them up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: But here’s what Clinton told bankers about regulation at one of those Goldman Sachs speeches: “How do you get to the golden key? How do we figure out what works? And the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry.” So, John, what’s her real view? Crack down on big money or kiss up to them?
JOHN PODESTA, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, Chris, I think we should take a step back and say how we got here, which is that the Russians, as U.S. senior members of the U.S. government confirmed, have been hacking into Democratic accounts, and now, they’ve hacked into my account. They’ve put out documents purported to be from my account. But I think if you look at what she said in this campaign, to get to your question — I would just say, you know, this should be of concern to everyone that the Russians are trying to influence our election. But I’ll answer your question directly, which is as she said all throughout this campaign, she’ll crack down on Wall Street. She said it, too, there’s nothing that she hasn’t said in private that she doesn’t say in public. She’s put forward the most aggressive Wall Street plan of any candidate, really. She stands behind Dodd/Frank. Donald Trump wants to rip it away. She won’t let Wall Street —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: But, John, what are we to make of the fact she says in private that the people who know the industry best in terms of regulation are the people who work on Wall Street?
PODESTA: That’s hardly — that’s hardly a revelation. I mean, I think people on Wall Street know how to game the system. What she wants to do is crack down on the system, make sure that there’s no institution that’s too big to fail and there’s no person that’s too big to jail.
So, I think she’s put forward very comprehensive ideas about that, how to reduce the size of big banks, and that’s why Bernie Sanders yesterday after looking at those transcripts said that he stands behind her. What they worked together to produce on the Democratic platform. That’s what she’ll do as president of the United States.
(CROSSTALK)
PODESTA: There’s nothing exceptional in there.
WALLACE: Well, the question — it’s like what Donald Trump says. He’s the one to handle the tax system because he knows how to game it. Let me ask you about another one. During the campaign, Clinton has taken a tough line on both trade and on immigration. But here’s what she said in a big money speech to a Brazilian bank, “My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders. Just think of what doubling the trade between the United States and Latin America would mean for everybody in this room.” John, open trade, open borders?
PODESTA: Look, you could pluck a few words if that’s what she did say out of context. I think, again, she’s put forward and has been for and has constantly, you know, championed and voted for comprehensive immigration reform that modernizes our border security. She — when she was secretary of state, she talked about creating a hemispheric effort to bring clean energy across the continent from the tip of South America to Canada, to invest in clean and renewable energy, to invest in the transmission that would clean up our energy system. And, you know, I think that she’s constantly talked about that. She had an initiative when she was secretary of state to do that. So, you got to look at the context of some of these remarks.
WALLACE: But, John, this goes —
PODESTA: And I think when you look at what she said about immigration, she’s for comprehensive immigration reform that takes people out of the shadows, emphasizes family unity, but also has — modernizes our border security.
WALLACE: But, John, this gets to the heart —
(CROSSTALK)
PODESTA: So, you can take a word here and a word there —
WALLACE: This gets to the heart of people’s concerns about Hillary Clinton. I want to take an excerpt from another one of her speeches. As she said, “You need both a public and a private position.” The question is, when you see the speeches and then you see what she’s saying on the campaign, and sometimes they’re diametrically opposed, what’s her real position?
PODESTA: They’re not diametrically opposed, Chris. She talked about income inequality to Wall Street. She said we need to close the carried interest loophole. She said to them that even as early as 2008 that what they were doing with credit default swaps and the housing market was going to wreck the economy, which it did. She’s been tough with them when she was a senator from New York. That’s when she’s done. They’re not diametrically opposed. Again, you can pull a few words out of context, but what he said on this campaign trail was she will be tough on Wall Street. And that’s exactly what she’ll do.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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