WASHINGTON
(AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s family was “dead broke” and saddled
with legal bills when she and her husband left the White House, the
former first lady said in an interview that aired Monday at the start of
a high-profile book tour that could precede a 2016 presidential
campaign.
“We came
out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt,” Clinton told
ABC News. “We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you
know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for
Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy.”
The
remark evoked charges of elitism long volleyed by both parties during
presidential campaigns. Republicans immediately seized on the comment,
two years after their presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, was dogged by
accusations of being out-of-touch because of his wealth. GOP officials
pointed out that Hillary Clinton received an $8 million book advance for
her 2003 memoir and said the comments reflected her insulation from the
daily problems of average Americans.
“I think she’s been out of touch with average
people for a long time,” said Republican National Committee chairman
Reince Priebus, pointing to Clinton’s estimated $200,000-per-speech
speaking fees and million-dollar book advances. “Whether she was flat
broke or not is not the issue. It’s tone deaf to average people.”
Clinton’s memoir, “Hard Choices,” will be
released Tuesday, accompanied by interviews with ABC News and other news
organizations. She will appear at book events this week in New York,
Chicago, Philadelphia and suburban Washington, D.C., and her appearances
are already stoking a debate over her record at the State Department
and as a one-time presidential candidate, New York senator and first
lady.
After leaving the White House, former
President Bill Clinton earned a fortune in speaking fees while Hillary
Clinton represented New York in the Senate. But the couple departed the
White House with large legal bills incurred during investigations into
Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Hillary Clinton’s Senate financial disclosure
forms, filed for 2000, show assets between $781,000 and almost $1.8
million. The forms allow senators to report assets in broad ranges. The
same form, however, showed that the Clintons owed between $2.3 million
and $10.6 million in legal bills to four firms.
Mrs. Clinton’s advance for “Living History,”
her 2003 memoir, was $8 million. In 2004, the Clintons paid off their
legal bills, according to Senate disclosure forms. And by 2009, when
Hillary Clinton was preparing to join President Barack Obama’s
administration as secretary of state, the Clintons’ wealth was somewhere
between $10 million and $50 million.
Branding an opponent as an elitist has been a
common tactic for both parties in presidential campaigns. In 2004,
Republican President George W. Bush’s advisers sought to portray
Democratic rival John Kerry — Clinton’s successor as secretary of state —
as a wealthy aristocrat. In 2008, Democrats took to the airwaves when
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a Politico interview that he was
unsure of how many homes he and his wife, Cindy McCain, owned.
In 2012, Romney was forced to repeatedly fend
off charges by Democrats that he was clueless about the economic
strains of many Americans. During the GOP primary campaign, Romney said
he was “not concerned” about the very poor, said he knew what it felt
like to worry about being “pink-slipped,” and said his wife drove a
“couple of Cadillacs.”
Clinton’s defenders noted the family has been
generous to charities and some of Clinton’s speeches have been
delivered for free or her appearances have raised millions of dollars
for philanthropic organizations.
During the 2008 campaign, Mrs. Clinton
released tax forms that showed a total of $1.1 million in book proceeds
went to charities between 2000 and early 2008. The reports also showed
that the Clintons gave away $10 million after departing the White House.
Between 2001 and 2006, $6 million of that was to the Clinton
Foundation, which the former president established after his presidency.
As
Clinton starts her book tour, the back-and-forth demonstrated what could
be a preview of the political jousting in the next presidential
campaign.
___
Associated Press writer Philip Elliott contributed to this report.
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