Hillary Clinton has bristled at accusations that she’s on the take because she’s been paid millions of dollars by Wall Street investment banks for short speaking engagements. But at Thursday’s Democratic party debate in New Hampshire, the former secretary of state declined to prove it by releasing transcripts from those events.
“Are you willing to release the transcripts of all your paid speeches? We do know, through reporting, that there were transcription services for all of those paid speeches. In full disclosure, would you release all of them?” MSNBC co-moderator Chuck Todd asked.
It’s the second time in recent weeks that Clinton has been asked if she will release her speech transcripts. Contracts for the paid speeches stipulated that event hosts would provide transcription services. When asked last month by The Intercept’s Lee Fang if she would release the transcripts, Clinton laughed.
On Thursday, she took the question more seriously, but still dodged the question.
“I will look into it. I don’t know the status, but I will certainly look into it,” she told Todd, before changing the subject.
Clinton’s awkward response comes a day after she fumbled a response to a similar question about her lucrative career on the speech circuit.
Asked during a town why she was paid $675,000 for speeches by Goldman Sachs, Clinton replied, “because that’s what they offered.”
Clinton’s claim was not entirely accurate. The agency that handled Clinton’s appearances — the Harry Walker Agency — charged a general fee of $225,000.
WATCH:
As Clinton skirted Todd’s question and denied that she is beholden to Wall Street, a Goldman Sachs lobbyist and of her biggest campaign fundraisers was in the debate hall audience sitting next to one of her campaign surrogates, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
Elmendorf, who has raised $172,000 for Clinton’s campaign, is a partner at the lobbying and PR group Subject Matter. The organization is paid $90,000 per quarter to lobby for Goldman Sachs, according to lobbying disclosure reports.
Sitting next to Dean, Hillary fundraiser and lobbyist Steve Elmendorf. He lobbies for Goldman Sachs. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/iR8DWzMNMy
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) February 5, 2016
This post has been updated with additional information.