In an interview with two Philadelphia newspapers Monday, Hillary Clinton again refused to release the transcripts to her pricy Wall Street speeches but insisted that she was the most transparent candidate for president.
"Well, I can only say this: let’s make sure everybody is already as transparent as I," Clinton said when asked whether her refusal to release the transcripts signaled that she had "something to hide."
Clinton avoided discussing the transcripts and instead focused on the "30 years" worth of tax returns that she had released. Seeing as rival Bernie Sanders has yet to release his tax returns, Clinton claimed, she was being held to a "double standard."
"There certainly has been a double standard between me and others who run," Clinton said. "Let’s meet the same standards. Let’s start with tax returns. That has been the standard."
Sanders promised Sunday to release his tax returns and echoed an earlier claim that he and his wife, who files the returns, have been busy. Still, Clinton proceeded to apply the double standard logic to her Wall Street speeches and said that she would release her transcripts when Sanders released his.
"So I’ve been clear, I’ve been clear for months, when people release transcripts of speeches they gave, I will release mine," Clinton said. "But in the meantime, I want to see their tax returns."
In a call asking Clinton to release the transcripts, The New York Times debunked Clinton’s double standard claim, writing that "the only different standard here is the one Mrs. Clinton set for herself, by personally earning $11 million in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 for 51 speeches to banks and other groups and industries."
As for the content of her speeches, Clinton said again that she talked to big bankers about contemporary politics and the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
"I talked about my experience as secretary of state, I talked about the world we lived in, I talked about global challenges," Clinton said. "I probably told the story of the bin Laden raid maybe 25 times because that’s what they were interested in."
Those who attended Clinton's speeches said that the former secretary of state came off "gushy" and sympathetic. Others have reported that Clinton’s words were "reassuring" and a "morale boost" for big banks.
Clinton has insisted that her speeches, which paid $200,000 an hour, have "never, ever" influenced her policies. When asked in February why she accepted this high sum–which is four times the median American household income–Clinton said, "that’s what they offered."