“Let everybody who’s ever given a speech to any private group under any circumstances release them—we’ll all release them at the same time.” So said Hillary Clinton, in response to reporters’ questions about the content of her speeches before Wall Street banks, like Goldman Sachs, earlier this year.
Perhaps, though, instead of waiting for “everybody” to release their speech transcripts, Hillary can lead by example and demonstrate that she has nothing to hide and that speculations about the possibly corrupted nature of her speeches is making much ado about nothing. Perhaps her supporters could suggest this to her.
In the meantime, regarding the release of tax records, she gets credit for what she has released. And since the norm is for presidential candidates to release tax records, and Sanders has yet to release his, there is nothing wrong with his being asked. He has said that he would. He has not made this conditional. He has indicated that he would gather his records and release them. I think that he is entitled to a bit of time to do this. I also expect that his tax returns will show nothing out of the ordinary.
And Hillary’s speeches, for which she was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, may also show nothing out of the ordinary. That is entirely possible. But she should release them. And her supporters should be the ones asking her to release them ASAP. For as one commentator, on Slate, recently suggested,
Clinton’s six-figure speeches are a point of contention in the Democratic race not because she was paid to give them but because of who paid her to give them. Bernie Sanders is running on the idea that Washington and Wall Street are too cozy and that the former will never be able to effectively regulate the latter as long as the status quo continues. He’s not challenging Clinton because he thinks she rigged the game; he simply contends that she is playing it like everyone else in politics.
Clinton’s decision to ignore the transcript controversy in hopes it will go away is hardly a surprise. She deployed a similar strategy early last year in the face of questions about the overlap between her family’s financial interests and those of the Clinton Foundation’s global donors, and to defend her use of a private email server to conduct official government business while secretary of state. Hillary responded to those controversies like she is responding to this one: by suggesting they are not controversies at all. Most politicians, she says, do the same thing, but she alone is treated differently. Many of her supporters agree, though many Democratic voters do not.
So, come on, Secretary Clinton, release those transcripts! What you said, behind close doors, to a room full of investment bankers matters, and the voting public has a right to know. Do the right thing and release the transcripts.