Will Bill Clinton Stop Giving Speeches? Doubtful

Bill Clinton says he might stop giving paid speeches — if Hillary gets to be president

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Ben Bullard

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Earlier this week, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who served during the Clinton administration, said Bill Clinton should stop taking money for speaking engagements while Hillary’s campaigning for the presidency.

On Wednesday, Bill Clinton sort of agreed — but he’s only willing to end his speaking gig on the condition that his wife gets elected president first.

Reich told ABC News on Sunday that Bill Clinton “has to stop the paid speeches,” suggesting that the level of scrutiny Hillary Clinton’s scandals have invited on the former first family is simply too intense to take for granted.

The Clintons must conduct themselves in exemplary fashion, Reich cautioned. “She has got to — and her husband as well — got to just put everything out. I mean more disclosure than any other candidate,” said Reich. “… She’s running a general-election campaign already, but I do think the issue of, sort of disclosure; of full disclosure, is a key vulnerability.”

By Wednesday, Bill Clinton had taken that message to heart.

Well … kinda.

From Politco:

Bill Clinton would likely not continue to give paid speeches if his wife, Hillary, were elected president, he said Wednesday.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked at a Clinton Global Initiative event.

But the former president vigorously defended the work of the Clinton Foundation, which has come under fierce criticism and intense media scrutiny in recent months as Hillary Clinton has ramped up her presidential campaign.

Clinton went on to explain that much of the scrutiny his family’s charitable foundation has received owes to the hyper-diligent commitment to political muckraking that emanates from Washington media acolytes with no lives outside of politics.

“The truth is, most of us have big parts of our lives that don’t have anything to do with politics,” asserted Clinton.

He didn’t elaborate.