Hillary Says She 'Donated' High Speaking Fees to 'Charity'… aka the Clinton Foundation

Hillary Says She 'Donated' High Speaking Fees to 'Charity'… aka the Clinton Foundation

Hillary Clinton is attempting to justify the hundreds of thousands of dollars she gets for speaking fees by claiming she has “donated” those extravagant fees to “charity.” But it turns out that “charity” is her own Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation.

Late in June, students at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas pleaded with Hillary to return the budget-crushing $225,000 she got to speak there.

Hillary’s speaking fees have become such a hot-button issue for colleges that one school in Buffalo, New York is trying to protect itself from protest by refusing to disclose what it recently paid Hillary to speak.

After weeks of claiming that she and Bill were “dead broke” despite having earned over $100 million since Bill left the White House and after her high speaking fees were criticized by at least one college group, Hillary was finally pressed by a reporter.

Since the controversy has swirled around her for several weeks, ABC News finally asked the former Secretary of State about what she charges for appearances and where the cash goes. Hillary told ABC’s Ann Compton that she “donated” the fees to “charity.”

“All of the fees have been donated to the Clinton Foundation for it to continue its life-changing and life-saving work,” Hillary claimed. “So it goes from a foundation at a university to another foundation.”

This is the same foundation that even The New York Times said was “rife” with cronyism, fraud, and waste.

Hillary did not follow her comments with any indication that she was considering giving back the fees to UNLV or curtailing what she charges for future appearance.

The former first lady, though, isn’t the only one in her family crying poor–or at least instigating of charges of elitism by claiming they don’t really care about money.

After his wife’s admittedly “inartful” statement, Bill Clinton came out swinging to back up her claim that they were “dead broke” upon leaving the White House even though as Bill’s last term was coming to an end the pair were also buying several multi-million dollar homes in New York and DC.

The couple’s daughter, Chelsea, similarly claimed that she just doesn’t care much for money. This is the same carefree girl who paid $10.5 million for an apartment in New York and who gets paid $600,000 a year for a no-show “journalism” job.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com

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