Advertisement

Hillary Clinton regrets saying she and Bill 'were dead broke' upon leaving the White House

Clinton: "I worry about other families in our country who feel like they're running in place, they're not getting ahead or maybe they are falling backwards. What I want to do . . . is to try to create more ladders of opportunity for more Americans so that they can have the same opportunities that Bill and I have had."

By JC Sevcik
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signs copies of her new book "Hard Choices" at Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles on June 19, 2014. In a preview of a longer interview set to broadcast Tuesday evening on Fusion's America with Jorge Ramos, Clinton admitted to regretting her recent controversial comment that she and husband Bill were 'dead broke' when they left the White House. UPI/Jim Ruymen
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signs copies of her new book "Hard Choices" at Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles on June 19, 2014. In a preview of a longer interview set to broadcast Tuesday evening on Fusion's America with Jorge Ramos, Clinton admitted to regretting her recent controversial comment that she and husband Bill were 'dead broke' when they left the White House. UPI/Jim Ruymen | License Photo

WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- Two months after telling ABC's Diane Sawyer she and husband Bill were 'dead broke' when they left the White House in 2001, Hillary Clinton admits she regrets the controversial comment.

In a preview uploaded Monday night of a longer interview set to air Tuesday evening on Fusion's America with Jorge Ramos, Clinton responds to Jorge's question about the now infamous comment that sparked a PR backlash for the former secretary of state.

Advertisement

"Well, I regret it. It was inartful," Clinton told Ramos.

While the Clinton's were in a substantial amount of debt upon leaving the White House at the end of Bill's second term, they very quickly earned their way out of debt with revenue from book deals and speaking engagements, income reported as more than $100 million.

Advertisement

"It was accurate but we are so successful and we're so blessed by the success we've had and my husband has worked incredibly hard," Clinton clarified.

Whether Clinton regrets her "inartful" comment because of its insensitivity to those facing insurmountable obstacles, unlikely to climb out of poverty, to whom the American dream seems like just that, a non-reality, or because it alienated her from growing constituency of financially stretched voters she'd like to secure, the former first lady likely and 2016 hopeful did not say.

Ramos gently pressed the point of the potential first-female-President-of the-United-States' privilege and Clinton found herself once again awkwardly dodging the issue while still struggling to identify with the increasingly large demographic of Americans Experiencing Financial Hardship.

"Do you know your net worth? Do you know how much money you have?" Ramos asked.

"You know, within a range, yeah," Clinton politely demurred from a direct answer, saying, "I mean,  we have two very nice houses which we're very proud of and not selling anytime soon so—"

"But Millions?" Ramos pressed.

"Yeah. Yes. Yes, indeed," Clinton confirmed.

"What I worry about is not my family. I worry about other families in our country who feel like they're running in place, they're not getting ahead or maybe they are falling backwards," Clinton told Ramos taking the attention off herself and turning it back to the voter.

Advertisement

"What I want to do–and this is what Bill has always done since the very beginning of his public life–is to try to create more ladders of opportunity for more Americans so that they can have the same opportunities that Bill and I have had," she said.

Ramos also discussed the ongoing immigration and refugee situation with the former secretary of state who said she believed a program to distinguish between immigrants and refugees in need of asylum was needed, "though both are deserving of love," and suggested setting up some sort of screening system to evaluate children before they make the difficult journey to cross the border.

"We should be setting up a system in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador to screen kids. Before they get in the hands of coyotes, or they get on the 'Beast,' or they're raped. Terrible things happen to them," she said, referring to the rail systems many refugees ride toward the United States.

"A lot of people are understandably, as I am, upset about what's happened to these kids but if we don't have a procedure, it's not going to stop," Clinton tells Ramos in the interview slated to broadcast Tuesday night.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines