Hillary, the majority of American voters doesn’t trust you and probably never will. I read a poll taken before the primary that stated: 68 percent say Clinton isn’t honest and trustworthy. A more recent poll put it the other way, saying: 36 percent of voters consider Clinton “honest and trustworthy.” I can’t speak for the 219 million or so Americans eligible to vote or the 126 million that actually do, but I’ll try to tell you why I don’t like or trust you.
You were not the kind of First Lady we were used to. Not an endearing First Lady like Jacqueline, Nancy, Laura, or Michelle. You came across as more of an aggressive political infighter than the proper hostess and organizer of the White House. You were seen to be constantly fighting with congressional Republicans, White House aides, and staff. Your fiery and unpredictable temper tantrums and your lobbing sarcastic jabs in private meetings and congressional hearings are the legacies of your tenure as First Lady. And many believe you were whispering in your husband’s ear as if you were or wanted to be the co-president. We’ve never understood who wears the pants in the Clinton family, but we learned in scandal after scandal that Bill’s were often down around his ankles.
I wasn’t going to mention the Juanita Broaddrick, Dolly Kyle, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Eileen Wellstone, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, Connie Hamzy, Lencola Sullivan, or Monica Lewinsky scandals. Those were all Bill’s lapses in judgment and not yours. Interesting, but not relevant in this discussion, other than to show a serious flaw in his character.
But, how about the ethics, non-sexual, scandals that came to light while you were in the White House. We had to endure Whitewater, Troopergate, Filegate, Vince Foster’s suicide and alleged cover-up, the Rose Law Firm billing records scandal, the renting the Lincoln bedroom for campaign contributions controversy, and finally Travelgate. You remember Travelgate. It was when you, our First Lady, were found to have made false statements (lied) to investigators.
And who can forget Pardongate and Bill’s pardoning of 140 people on his last day in office. I’m sure there are 140 stories, some good and some not so good, but a couple are worth repeating. First, there was your brother, Tony Rodham, and his urging you to pardon a couple of carnival operators convicted of bank fraud. We later learned that Tony received $325,000 for using his influence with you. And how about your other brother, Hugh Rodham receiving a $400,000 fee for pursuing and gaining clemency for two other convicted criminals. And, I have to mention the most controversial criminal pardon of all; Mark Rich, the international commodities trader, hedge fund manager and financier, who was indicted on 65 criminal counts, including income tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering, and trading with Iran while Iranian revolutionaries were still holding Americans hostage. Mark fled the country and was the FBI Ten Most Wanted List when Bill intervened. Hours before leaving office, Bill Clinton granted Mark Rich a highly controversial presidential pardon. Shortly thereafter Mark Rich allegedly “donated” a large amount of money to help you furnish your new home in Chappaqua.
You must have done a bang-up job of decorating with Mark Rich’s “gift” and the $190,000 of purported White House property you stole when you left Washington. Although you agreed to pay us back $86,000 for some of the “gifts” you mistakenly appropriated (stole) and you later returned another $28,500 worth of White House property, we were appalled. Stealing national treasures from the White House. Shame on you.
Without passing judgment on your involvement or guilt in any of these unfortunate incidents, I do get a feeling—more of a sense—of dishonesty, greed, and a complete lack of integrity. I know that your Republican opponents were ruthless in their pursuit and exposure of all of their claims and accusations. They hired an army of investigators to dig through every aspect of your lives. Did they really hate you that much? These same hard-core conservatives have an equal amount for hatred for Barack Obama. What Obama financial or ethics scandals have they come up with? Where are the Obamagates? There aren’t any. So don’t use the excuse of how vicious Newt and your Republican opponents were back then.
On the other hand, I think you’re being treated unfairly in this whole Benghazi tragedy. Sure, you were ultimately responsible because you were the top dog in the State Department, but that’s it. Blaming you for that is like saying Obama is responsible for my lazy mail carrier or some surly VA nurse.
I don’t know what to think about your State Department email mess. You had to have explicitly gone out of your way to bring up a private email server. The proper and easiest thing would have been to just use the server that came with the job. Why didn’t you? You must have thought: 1) You were above the law and could do whatever you wanted 2) You didn’t think, you were naive and didn’t understand the significance of your decision, or 3) You intentionally wanted to keep your emails personal and out of the public domain. Given your history in these sorts of things, I’m leaning towards 3).
All of this is nothing compared to what you and Bill have been doing since he left office. While Jimmy Carter has been teaching Sunday school and building Habit for Humanity homes and George W. Bush has been going to ball games and clearing brush, you and Bill have been using the esteem of the presidency to amass a fortune of greater than $100 million dollars. Let alone raising over $2 billion dollars for the Clinton Foundation.
You admitted to Diane Sawyer that you were “dead broke” when Bill left office in 2001, and now you’re worth and estimated $110 million dollars. Did you make all of that money the “old fashioned” way and earn it. No, you sold yourselves to anybody and everybody that would pay. There’s a word for people that sell themselves.
CNN reported that you and Bill have earned $153 million dollars in speaking fees since he left office, including $2.25 million for 12 speeches to Goldman Sachs, $1.915 million for 10 speeches to UBS, $350,000 for 2 speeches to Morgan Stanley, $1.3 million for 5 speeches to Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, 1.255 million for 6 speeches to Deutsche Bank, and $700 thousand for 4 speeches to Citigroup. Do you see a trend here? Big banks? Wall Street? And, do you actually think that they paid you all that money for your sage advice and counseling? No, these are some of the most astute money managers in the world. They don’t spend their money foolishly or without the promise of a profitable return. You and Bill have been bought and paid for. I don’t even want to think about what they expect as payback.
It’s your wall-street-like “We’ll do anything we can get away with for money” sense of morality that I really find disturbing. And even more disgusting is that you keep denying it. Do you actually expect us to believe you? Well, the polls show that at least 64 percent of us don’t.
Is it any wonder why we might suspect some financial hanky-panky with the Clinton Foundation. How was the money raised? What are the donors really buying? How beholden are you to the donors? Don’t bother to answer, you’ll only lie.
I’ll close with the story of another Democratic president who left office “dead broke” and share his views of what we’ve discussed. Upon leaving the presidency, Harry Truman returned to Independence, Missouri, to live in the house he and Bess had shared for years with her mother. Truman decided that he did not wish to be on any corporate payroll, believing that taking advantage of such financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the nation’s highest office. He also turned down numerous offers for commercial endorsements. Truman wrote and sold his memoirs for a flat payment of $670,000 and had to pay two-thirds of that in tax. He ended up with $37,000 after he paid his assistants.
Compare Harry’s view of “the integrity of the nation’s highest office” with yours and Bill’s. We won’t even mention your two books deals of $15 and $13 million dollars because Harry actually wrote his own memoirs. Well, times were different back then, you say. Were they really? Has our views of the presidency, integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness changed all that much? I think not.
I think you’re a smart, talented, but vindictive power player and a compulsive liar that has used and abused Bill’s former position of prestige and power to amass a considerable fortune and to finance your way to the presidency. And if accused of any wrongdoing or impropriety, you’ll be quick to lie about it.
The majority of America is right. You are not honest, trustworthy, or a whole lot of other things.
Too Much Tequila, Too Little Sunscreen 