Democrats love to decry Wall Street as the epicenter of all the nation's ills on one hand, while at the same time gladly taking donations offered to their campaigns with the other. Perhaps the most shining example is Hillary Clinton, who for decades has reaped enormous benefits from her relationship with those "evil" bankers.
Even The Washington Post noticed how "Clinton blasts Wall Street, but still draws million in contributions":
Through the end of December, donors at hedge funds, banks, insurance companies and other financial-services firms had given at least $21.4 million to support Clinton’s 2016 presidential run — more than one of every 10 dollars of the $157.8 million contributed to back her bid, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings by The Washington Post.
The contributions helped Clinton reach a fundraising milestone: By the end of 2015, she had brought in more money from the financial sector during her four federal campaigns than her husband did during his quarter-century political career.
The Post looked back through records since Bill's launch into politics in 1974 and found that Hillary's various campaigns just since 2000 have out-earned her husband's started some 40 years ago. Wall Street donors and other financial firms have supported Mrs. Clinton to the tune of $44.1 million, just inching out her husband at $39.7 million. That's a tight-knit group, right there.
Clinton's favorite sources are billionaire George Soros, giving $7 million to her super PAC during her current campaign, and hedge-fund manager S. Donald Sussman, who offered a paltry $2.5 million.
While she rakes in tens of millions of dollars, Clinton preaches an altogether different message to her middle-class supporters on the campaign trail:
I believe strongly that we need to make sure that Wall Street never wrecks Main Street again. No bank is too big to fail, and no executive is too powerful to jail.
Except for maybe her, but that's another story.
Listen to Clinton's response from last night, when CNN's Anderson Cooper asks why she accepted over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs after her run as secretary of state. Her stumbling has been turned into a 6-second Vine (volume in bottom right corner):
During the same Democratic town hall, Clinton also challenged anyone to find an example of her loyalties being bought:
Anybody who knows me, who thinks they can influence me, name anything they’ve influenced me on. Just name one thing. I’m out here every day saying I’m going to shut them down, I’m going after them.
It seems everyone can see the connection but her. And never forget that over the last four decades, it only took two Clintons to raise $3 billion. It's hard not to imagine how much influence that has on all parties involved. Besides, there's never been a time in the history of transactions that money wasn't used to buy something.
