Bill Clinton said Wednesday that he would give up paid speaking engagements if his wife was elected president.
"Would you still give paid speeches if your wife was in the White House?" Bloomberg’s Betty Liu asked at a Clinton Global Initiative question-and-answer session in Denver.
"No. No, I don’t think so," Clinton said.
Clinton elaborated that giving paid speeches as first gentleman would create a media distraction. "You’re just making a daily story," Clinton said.
He would know. The former president’s lavishly compensated speeches have created a media firestorm as Hillary seeks the Democratic nomination.
A number of reports, most notably the book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer, allege that speech payments to the Clintons and donations to the family’s political charity were attempts by outside actors to influence the policy decisions of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Schweizer notes that "of the 13 (Bill) Clinton speeches that fetched $500,000 or more, only two occurred during the years his wife was not secretary of state."
Despite the controversy, Clinton announced last month that he would continue to give paid speeches while his spouse campaigns, saying "I gotta pay our bills." Hillary Clinton was widely criticized in 2014 for making a similar comment.
Clinton will give up a major revenue stream if his wife is elected president — he has made more than $100 million from speeches since 2001. Still, he said he will continue to make speeches "on the subjects [he’s] interested in."
Clinton said his speaking engagements have been fun learning experiences.
"I’ve really enjoyed those things," Clinton said, prompting laughs from the audience. "I get to go meet with smart people," he added, citing his frequent trips to meet with the major investors of the Oracle Corporation.
The Oracle example was ill-advised if Clinton wanted to play down the scandal surrounding his paid speeches. The International Business Times reported in April that Oracle paid $200,000 to Bill Clinton while the company lobbied the State Department to change its immigrant work visa policies.