As Clinton asks for money, what she says remains a mystery
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reporters gathered at a chain link fence corner of a parking lot, trying to hear Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s remarks to a crowd of about 1,000 supporters during a fundraiser at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum in Provincetown, Mass. on Sunday.
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. » It was a very busy, very lucrative weekend for Hillary Clinton in the summer playground of the East Coast’s moneyed elite.
She brunched with wealthy backers at a seaside estate in Nantucket, snacking on shrimp dumplings and crabcakes. A few hours later, she and her husband dined with an intimate party of thirty at a secluded Martha’s Vineyard estate. And on Sunday afternoon, she joined the singer Cher at a “LGBT summer celebration” on the far reaches of Cape Cod.
By Sunday evening, Clinton had spoken to more than 2,200 campaign donors. But what she told the crowds remains a mystery.
Clinton has refused to open her fundraisers to journalists, reversing nearly a decade of greater transparency in presidential campaigns and leaving the public guessing at what she’s saying to some of her most powerful supporters.
It’s an approach that differs from the Democratic president she hopes to succeed. Since his 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama has allowed reporters traveling with him into the backyards and homes of wealthy donors to witness his some of his remarks.
While reporters are escorted out of Obama’s events before the start of the juicier Q&A, the president’s approach offers at least a limited measure of accountability that some fear may disappear when Clinton or Republican nominee Donald Trump moves into the White House.
“Unfortunately these things have a tendency to ratchet down,” said Larry Noble, the general counsel of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center. “As the bar gets lower, it’s hard to raise it again.”
Clinton’s campaign does release limited details about her events, naming the hosts, how many people attended and how much they gave. That’s more than Trump, whose far fewer fundraisers are held entirely away from the media, with no details provided.
Even some Democrats privately acknowledge that Clinton’s penchant for secrecy is a liability, given voters continued doubts about her honesty.
While Clinton will occasionally take questions from reporters at campaign stops, she has not held a full-fledged news conference in more than 260 days. Trump has held several. She refuses to release the transcripts of dozens of closed-door speeches she delivered to companies and business associations after leaving the State Department, despite significant bipartisan criticism.
And since announcing her presidential bid in April 2015, Clinton has held around 300 fundraising events — only around five have been open to any kind of news coverage.
“It does feed this rap about being secretive and being suspicious,” said GOP strategist Whit Ayers.
Clinton’s aides have promised for weeks that greater access to her events will be coming soon. But Trump’s lack of disclosure has given her political cover to keep the doors closed, particularly as she conducts a period of intense fundraising before the final sprint to Election Day.
While Clinton is expected to make only two public appearances before the end of August, she and her top backers will mingle with donors at no fewer than 54 events according to a fundraising schedule obtained by The Associated Press.
Reporters covering these events wait outside, in vans, parking lots and vacant guesthouses — even at homes they’ve entered with Obama at previous events. In Provincetown on Sunday, five reporters crowded into the corner of a parking lot, clinging to a chain link fence as they tried to catch Clinton’s speech to a crowd of about 1,000 supporters.
None of her remarks seemed particularly remarkable: The candidate could faintly be heard running through her standard stump speech.
During a Saturday fundraiser at a stately Martha’s Vineyard estate, faint cheers could be heard as Clinton addressed 700 donors on a green lawn overlooking the water. Staffers instructed drivers to roll up the windows of the vans where reporters waited before being ushered into a nearby guesthouse.
What a candidate tells his or her rich donors has long been a subject of intense speculation in American politics, in part because the message can be different than what they offer to voters.
Obama is still haunted by a comment he made at a 2008 fundraiser in San Francisco, calling voters in small town Pennsylvania “bitter” and saying they cling to “guns or religion.” He learned a lesson: At events during his 2012 campaign, staffers set up a table where guests were expected to check their cellphones before entering. Clinton has tried to ban tweeting, Instagram and other forms of social media at some of her events.
Four years ago, a waiter recorded and leaked remarks GOP nominee Mitt Romney made about the “47 percent” of voters who are “dependent on government and would vote for Obama “no matter what” at a closed Florida fundraiser. After his convention, Romney started opening his fundraisers to the media to grab headlines, especially on days when he had no other public appearances.
His former aides say that’s not a problem for Clinton.
“Quite frankly, if I’m her, it may not be a bad thing to let Donald Trump be the only candidate making news on any given day,” said former Romney campaign aide Ryan Williams. “She can stay dark for five straight days and let Trump trip all over himself.”
74 responses to “As Clinton asks for money, what she says remains a mystery”
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“Clinton has refused to open her fundraisers to journalists, reversing nearly a decade of greater transparency in presidential campaigns and leaving the public guessing at what she’s saying to some of her most powerful supporters.”
The lack of transparency: The plot thickens
Agreed. Remember when Obama campaigned as the “transparency president”????
USELESS I D I O T S SUPPORT LYING CORRUPT HILLARY CLINTON!!!
what does your name suggest?? trumpty dumpty zoombie
Crooked Hillary behind closed doors?
The media has been played by the Republican Party’s twenty five year smear campaign. Now the media is asking for transparency? Irresponsible reporting has led to candidates being more cautious than in past years.
Crooked Hilliary behind bars. Lock her up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Monday it is reviewing nearly 15,000 previously undisclosed emails recovered as part of the FBI’s now-closed investigation into the handling of sensitive information that flowed through Hillary Clinton’s private home server.
Lawyers for the department told U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg on Monday that they anticipate processing and releasing the first batch of these new emails in mid-October, raising the prospect new messages sent or received by Democratic nominee could become public just before November’s presidential election. The judge is overseeing production of the emails as part of a federal public-records lawsuit filed by the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch.
I’m self employed so I get up every day to make a living. You sound like one of those young loser Repubs when I was a bartender 50 years ago who would whine then.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-emails-show-clinton-foundation-sought-access-to-state-department-on-donors-behalf-1471891203
How can you tell if Hillary is lying? Her lips are moving.
““She can stay dark for five straight days and let Trump trip all over himself.””
Yep. He tripped all over himself all the way to LA. Where he acted all Presidential, handing out water, food, clothing and gifts for little kids while Hillary slept, other of the costal elite made snide Twitter comments from the safety of their home cities far from the flooding and zero played golf.
Remember when the ‘news’ media flayed George W. Bush because he had vectored Katrina to make a direct hit on blacks in New Orleans and then disdainfully flew over the wreckage he had created to show his contempt for minorities?
But the current occupant cannot be bothered to come off the golf course at Martha’s Vineyard for even a brief photo op in Louisiana, much of which is underwater, and what do we hear from the ‘news’ media about this cold blooded indifference? [crickets….]
The message from said occupant seems to be that expressed by his former SecState: “What DIFFERENCE does it make?”
Do not vote for Hellary Clinton!
I definitely will, thank you.
After initial reservations The Governor thanked Trump/Pence for making the effort at his own and not taxpayer money to show support. Trump also donated $100,000 to the Church they visited. Same time Hilliary was raking in the money and Obama golfed. That’s got to tell you something.
FBI found 15,000 more Clinton emails….has SA reported on this yet?
And Hillary is saying “What difference does it make?”
As the article states, the case is closed! so… . yeah, what difference does it make now?
thos, you bring back memories of Barack Obama spewing his garbage with his fake southern accent….yammering about “… a president who only saw the people from the window of an airplane…” So, can he see Louisiana from Martha’s Vineyard?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/flashback-obama-ripped-bushs-unconscionable-ineptitude-during-hurricane-katrina/article/2599641
Tita Girl…agree.
@thos..I agree.
Can’t everyone just agree that this woman is the most corrupt and deceitful person the Dems could have possibly put forward?
Hillary will say whatever the polls tell her what to say. Whatever side of an issue is polling at > 50%, Hillary will be for it.
“corrupt and deceitful “??
In the Democrat Party that is a resume enhancer.
lol, While Hillary is hardly my candidate she is hardly the most corrupt or deceitful person a party could put forward. That rests with the republican party who has put forth a candidate with zero political experience and the founder of a scam, Trump University. Their second runner up is the most disliked person in Washington with almost as no experience as the Donald. Why does the republican party now hate experience?
Boots, get over it. Lock her up. She belongs behind bars.
Why exactly? Just because she is a woman and forgave her husband for cheating? Why should she be locked up?
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is pushing back on Hillary Clinton’s reported claims that he advised her to use a personal email account — telling reporters that the Democratic presidential nominee is trying to “pin” the scandal on him.
The New York Times reported last week that Clinton told the FBI that Powell detailed to her his email practices under George W. Bush. The paper cited a passage from an upcoming book about Bill Clinton’s post-presidency that read, “Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”
Powell, in response, said in a statement he only sent her a memo about his email practices and had no recollection of this conversation with Clinton.
He elaborated on that statement to The New York Post, saying “The truth is she was using it (her personal email) for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.”
He added that, “her people have been trying to pin it on me.”
Powell said it didn’t bother him, according to The Post.
Well sarge, so what? This is hardly a major issue as far as I am concerned. Security only means that American citizens are left in the dark. Russia and China already knows.
Now trumps manager is an old sexual harassing millionaire from your favorite, FOX FAIR AND BALANCED….Yes folks that’s other 2 was FIRED! This new one was FIRED FROM FOX…FFF
Wonder what’s in the additional Clinton 15,000 emails the FBI just found?
boots..hiLIARy’s HEALTH is worrisome. That bump on her head is very telling from her incoherent (Short Circuit) speeches to her assistance in her wobbling around…to her regular naps. I worry for you folks.
Standby and watch ALL of the DIRT that will spill over in another month about Zombie leader, Donald Trump aka, Trumpty Dumpty.
If you aren’t wearing your tin-foil hat, and can honestly attest to the fact that you’ve been Kool-Aid free for 90 days; how can you possibly look at your party with anything other than total distain?
Question should be how can you look at your party, the republican party with anything less than total disgust? I mean come on, handing out play dole for 48 seconds in a flood disaster? Real smart Donald. Shame the republican party no longer believes in republican values. Today everything republicans do is only for show. No substance.
Lock her up.
Very generous, like a truck load is going to even put a dent into the total destruction down there?? Should have been a convoy of trucks. Oh yeah, no mo kala. Already hanging by a string. But then again, it was just a photo-op.
mctruck..FBI just found 15,000 new Clinton emails…did hiLIARy LIE again?
I am not surprised sarge that you didn’t answer my question. 🙂
Trump made a significant donation to one of the churches in the area. How much did the CF donate?
I don’t like her anyway. No matter what she does.
You are not suppose to like the president. The president is not your friend. But you should respect the president. I can respect Hillary, I cannot respect the Donald who is little more than the king of the clowns.
I don’t like O, hiLIARy and….and….and RESPECT is earned..not a given.
That is your prerogative not to like candidates who have some experience and knowledge. Better to go for the King of the clowns.
@ Boots…”King of the Clowns”…you lost your talking points. What are O’s & hiLIARy’s major accomplishments?
Keonigohan, surely you jest? Today we have the stock market over 18,000, just a bit over GW’s lows of under 7000. Unemployment is down under Obama and the huge deficit the republicans have left him has been reduced by approximately two thirds. As for Hillary, she was secretary of state besides being a senator from NY.
As usual, boots with his misdirection. Hillary has no achievements as a politician.
And the stock market is artificially floated because your money earns next to nothing in the bank. It’s certainly not due to any brilliant Oblunder strategy.
HilLIARy if finally using some smarts in staying away from the press, because she knows that they are in her pant suit pocket. They will do their job of ignoring her corruption of socking away millions in a fake charity called the Clinton Foundation, and not even investigate who is donating to it. She knows that they will not demand to see her heath records, even though she has had serious health issues in the past, and the press will gloss over her incompetence/corruption/deception over the Benghazi terrorist attack, and the improper use of classified material.
Such imaginary fears. lol Fact is the Donald has broken a decades long tradition of releasing his tax returns and why? Probably because it shows he owes Putin big bucks. Well go ahead and vote for the the Russian stooge.
hiLIARy’s HEALTH issues are a major problem…she should show her HEALTH records.
“she has not held a full-fledged news conference in more than 260 days. Trump has held several.”
Since last December Trump has given 11.
She was interrogated by congress for something like 12 hours over republican imaginary fears. Enough already.
Cricket_Amos subject is about hiLIARy’s lack of news conferences…not her FBI interrogation. Seems like you’re getting thin skinned and not thinking straight..did you “Short Circuit”?
That was before. A lot more dirt was dug up since then. Lock her up.
They were cheering when Clinton told them she was going to Raise Taxes.
They all “Short Circuited”.
An very revealing rather long story of a Vanity Fair, writer’s interview and history of trump’s escapades. Just one of remarks from one of trump’s lawyer’s to the writer and trump’s remarks when questioned about the statement made about him:
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2015/07/donald-ivana-trump-divorce-prenup-marie-brenner
Ms. Marie Brenner quoting lawyer, “Donald is a believer in the big-lie theory,” his lawyer had told me.
“If you say something again and again, people will believe you.”
To which trump when asked, “one of my lawyers said that?” Trump said when I asked him about it.
“I think if one of my lawyers said that, I’d like to know who it is because I’d fire his ass. I’d like to find out who that scumbag is!”
A must read article for insight into his long standing persona. He will never change because that’s who he is. FOUL.
Trump doesn’t have American Blood on his hands…hiLIARy has many American’s Blood on her hands.
When she and Bill left the White House she was dead broke. Today they are worth billions thanks to her donors and pay for play. Boots, Klastri, Keaukaha, Ikefromeli, Nanakuli boss, and the rest of you fools send money, not cheap talk, Keep on giving because once she loses she’ll need the money to live on.
don’t worry, it will be a landslide for Hillary. That’s why donald intimated he would take a very long vacation; but even at that he won’t leave with making a lot of money he needs for his billions in debt he has accumilated world wide.
leaving without making $$$$
And folks, Trump won’t lose without first making sure he makes double the amount of money he has personally put into his campaign. He will once again be laughing on his way to bank with all the money he has garnered in his run. That explains the minimum spent on ads, he knows he’s going to lose and wants to assure he comes out smelling like a rose. Only Donald Trump matters folks.
Read that Vanity Fair article I posted to get the full picture.
Peter Schweizer: Media Went from ‘Defending the Clinton Foundation’ to ‘Pretending It Wasn’t There’ to ‘Saying Shut It Down’
Appearing on Monday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily, Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and author of the best-selling book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich (now available in graphic novel format) credited his book’s success to “the hunger and desire people have for real information about our political leaders, in this case Hillary Clinton.”
SiriusXM host Alex Marlow noted that during a fundraising appearance over the weekend, Clinton “sort of implied that she’d like to shut down Breitbart, if she can.”
Schweizer agreed with Marlow that it might be too late for Clinton to save her controversial Clinton Foundation by suppressing dissident news outfits, since even the leftist Huffington Post ran an article over the weekend flatly calling on Clinton to “shut it down.” Schweizer said he was somewhat surprised to see the Huffington Post take such a strong position against the Foundation.
mctruck…can you get all your thoughts in one post? Are you “Short Circuiting”?
“more revealing dress ushered in by women’s liberation “directly translates into unwanted results of sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and indirectly promote violence against women.”
“a conjugal family established through a marriage contract between a man and a woman, and extended through procreation is the only definition of family”
“domestic abuse as a result of “the stress and frustrations that men encounter in their daily lives.”
“She opposed the UN conference widening the scope of the definition of the family to include “gay and lesbian ‘families.’ ”
just some of the thoughts of wisdom from huma abedin, the female felon’s number one coconspirator.
The MSM can’t go there. Huma and Hillary are the ideal progressive couple.
This from the woman married to the Weiner a.k.a. Carlos Danger who can’t help himself and feels the need to share his weenie photos with young girls. What is wrong with these so called progressive women who are married to serial philanderers?
Clinton foundation should send money to LA to assist the flood victims.
hiLIARy should but won’t…she lacks empathy.
We gotta have shrimp dumplings and crabcakes ( priorities first )
Vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein!
Who needs money? Lock her up.
The US has entered into an exclusive contract with a real estate firm to sell 56 buildings that currently house U.S. Post Offices.
The sale of these properties will fetch about $19 billion. A regular real estate commission will be paid to that company. That company is CRI, CRI will be making a minimum of 3% and as much as 6% commission on each and every sale.
CRI belongs to a man named Richard Blum. Richard Blum is the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein Senator Feinstein and her husband stand to make a fortune from these transactions. (EST at between $950 million and $1.1 billion!!)
How does a U.S. Senator from San Francisco manage to organize and lobby such a sweet deal?
Has our government become so elitist that they have no fear of oversight? Isn’t this a cousin to insider trading? Pass this info on before it’s pulled from the Internet.
Verified it on Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/blum.asp
My BIG QUESTION…..How will Hillary get a security clearance when she breached security with her emails on her private server??? Any other person who did the same thing would be slammed dunked.