Bill Clinton rises to wife's defense

American dream’s demise the issue, he says, not her wealth

Former President Bill Clinton smiles during a session of the annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative America at the Sheraton Downtown in Denver on Tuesday.
Former President Bill Clinton smiles during a session of the annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative America at the Sheraton Downtown in Denver on Tuesday.

Former President Bill Clinton defended his wife Hillary Clinton's ties to middle-income Americans, saying "she's not out of touch" and is an advocate for policies that promote social mobility.

Speaking at a conference in Denver, Bill Clinton told moderator David Gregory of NBC's Meet the Press on Tuesday that making an issue of his family's rise to wealth is "the wrong debate." The public should be talking about how to address the "demise of the American dream," he said.

Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and a potential 2016 presidential candidate, is trying to rebound from a series of comments in which she suggested that she and the former president aren't really rich.

Clinton, who has been on a promotional tour for her memoir since before its June 10 release, said in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer that she and Bill Clinton were "dead broke" when they left the White House in January 2001. She told British newspaper The Guardian that the couple isn't "truly well off."

Bill Clinton acknowledged that she didn't "give the most adept answer" to questions about their personal wealth. "You can say, 'OK, I gotta clean that up,' which she did."

Hillary Clinton, also speaking Tuesday at the Clinton Global Initiative conference, drew from her past to portray herself as a lifelong advocate for poor children, pushing back against critics who say she's lost touch with the concerns of middle- and lower-income Americans.

Upward mobility "really does take a village," she said Tuesday, paraphrasing the title of her 1996 book to underscore the correlation between children's achievement and income, school quality and other social factors in their neighborhoods.

"It's no coincidence that places where we still see mobility in America are communities with vibrant middle classes," she said.

Bill Clinton said Tuesday that his wife's comments about being in debt when they left the White House were accurate.

"It's factually true that we were several million dollars in debt," he said, adding that neither of them could have envisioned the windfall they've reaped in the last 14 years. "I'm shocked that it's happened."

At the end of 2012, the Clintons were worth $5.2 million to $25.5 million, according to financial disclosures that Hillary Clinton filed in 2013 as she was leaving her position as secretary of state.

That total excludes the value of their homes in Washington and in Chappaqua, N.Y., any savings since 2012 and gifts made to their daughter, Chelsea, who is expecting her first child later this year.

Under federal disclosure rules for administration officials, the Clintons provided their net worth in a broad range. Most of the assets reported were in a single cash account at JPMorgan Chase & Co. that held between $5 million and $25 million. As of 2010, they had two JPMorgan accounts, indicating a net worth of as much as $50 million.

Since she left the government last year, Hillary Clinton, 66, has been giving speeches, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Bill Clinton, 67, also makes paid speeches and appearances, receiving $200,000 each in October 2012 from Vanguard Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, according to Hillary Clinton's disclosures.

Republicans, who watched presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney suffer for being perceived as elite in 2008 and 2012, have pounced on Hillary Clinton's remarks.

Clinton's discussion of her wealth also provided an opportunity for Vice President Joe Biden, another potential 2016 presidential candidate, to throw a rhetorical elbow. "I don't own a single stock or bond," he said at the White House "Working Families Summit" Monday. "I have no savings account."

That's not exactly right, according to his official financial disclosure statement.

A form the vice president signed May 12 shows calendar year 2013 holdings ranging from $1,001 to $15,000 in a U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union joint savings account, and the same in each of two checking accounts at Suntrust and M&T Bank. It also shows a joint holding of less than $1,001 in an M&T Bank checking account.

The disclosure also shows that his wife, Jill Biden, has savings and investments including mutual funds.

One irony of the elitism meme for Hillary Clinton's allies is that her philanthropic work matches wealthy donors to projects that benefit the underprivileged.

The Clintons have spent much of the past year raising more than $200 million for an endowment that should keep their family foundation, the parent of the Clinton Global Initiative, financially viable even if she becomes president and they are no longer able to collect money without creating conflict-of-interest issues.

Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee member from New York and longtime Clinton supporter, said the current fascination with Hillary Clinton's money shouldn't captivate voters if she runs for president.

"Whether a candidate is in the one percent or not is not the issue," he said. "The issue is whether the candidate focuses on building the one percent or on building the middle class."

Information for this article was contributed by Richard Rubin and Mark Silva of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 06/25/2014

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