On CNN’s 11:00 am @THIS HOUR with Berman and Michaela segment, senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar discussed the political cleanup necessary after former secretary of state and now prospective Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton asserted she and her husband were “dead broke” when they left the White House.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly they're not going to come out and say that it's causing them consternation, but I definitely think it did. And I think from their perspective this was a mess up. And you saw that in her cleanup today.
I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton and the Clintons, when they came out of the White House looking at millions of dollars in debt, really felt like they were in the hole. They had not been rich before going into the White House.
Not been rich? This is in line with Mrs. Clinton’s recent statement that "We had no money when we got there.” Yet according to their financial disclosure statements for 1993, the year Bill Clinton assumed the presidency, the couple had a significant net worth. The New York Times on May 18, 1994 reported:
The White House made public financial disclosure forms today that showed that most of the wealth of President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, is in the name of Mrs. Clinton.
Making public their statement for 1993, the Clintons estimated their net worth at $633,015 to $1,620,000, which would make them the least affluent occupants of the White House in 15 years. The rules do not require Government officials to report their worth precisely, but only to identify their assets in ranges, and the Clintons have declined to provide more specific figures.
No doubt Clintonites, as always, would quibble and parse what the term “no money” means, but a net worth in 1993 of at least over a half million dollars isn’t how most people would define it.
Yet mainstream media types like Brianna Keilar readily buy into Clinton’s story and give her a pass. Why, it’s just like the good old days when Bill was in the White House.
