Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defended herself from criticism for her decision to speak to banks, including Goldman Sachs, for large sums of money during an appearance Wednesday at the 2017 Code Conference.
During the discussion, Walt Mossberg pushed Clinton on her decision to speak to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms before running for president in 2016.
"Goldman Sachs. You knew you were going to run for president, or you thought you might or probably, you were thinking about it. You had to be thinking about it as a possibility. Why did you do those?" he asked.
"Why do you have Goldman Sachs here?" Clinton quickly responded.
"Because they pay us," Kara Swisher said.
"They paid me," Clinton told the pair before the line of questioning became more serious.
After listing a variety of other groups she spoke to, including camp counselors, Clinton said that people want to hear what current and former secretaries of state want to say before explaining that the most common topic during her speeches was the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
Clinton, who served as secretary of state during the Obama administration, said she believed her speeches were unfairly used against her, implying that sexism played a role in the attacks.
"Men got paid for the speeches they made. I got paid for the speeches I made. And it was used, and I thought it was unfairly used and all of that, but it was part of the background music," she said.
Clinton was criticized during the 2016 campaign for receiving about $225,000 for many of her speaking engagements, which included speeches to financial firms.