Hillary Clinton's paid speeches while secretary of state raise ethical concerns

Hillary Clinton was paid for speeches while Secretary of State.

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

last updated 26 January 2016

Hillary Clinton laughed and ignored a reporter's question in New Hampshire on Friday about whether she'd be willing to release transcripts of the paid speeches she gave to Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs while serving as secretary of state. And an analysis of Clinton's financial disclosures reveals the Goldman talks were not the only ethically suspect engagements she took in office.

For instance, in 2013, some 22 of the 39 organizations that arranged a Clinton speech — for which she requires exorbitant speaking fees and luxurious accommodations — lobbied the government the same year. The lobbying organizations to which Clinton spoke ranged from big banks to pharmaceutical companies to the International Deli-Dairy-Bakery Association.

Clinton denied suggestions of impropriety regarding her paid speeches on Sunday, arguing that her hosts merely wanted to hear about how she helped kill Osama bin Laden and also about "the world."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.