Relatively speaking, of course, a $100,000 rental bill for two weeks in the Hamptons is no biggie for the Clintons. At Hillary’s rate for speaking fees, that would come to, er … twenty-four minutes of work. And at the rate Bill got paid by the bank behind the Uranium One deal, it would only take twelve minutes, hardly longer than a standard talk-radio segment.
So enjoy time off from all that hard work, you dead-broke duo:
Following Hillary Clinton’s recently announced plan to help the middle class, she and Bill are again renting a house in the Hamptons for the last two weeks in August for a rumored $100,000.
The Clintons are renting a four-bedroom home from Republican art collector Andre Nasser and his real estate guru wife, Lois, at 44 Broadview Road — a hidden cul-de-sac in Amagansett that boasts wealthy neighbors, includingHarvey Weinstein.
The couple rented the same place for three weeks last year, after Hillary controversially declared they were “dead broke” after leaving the White House in 2000. But this year, the Democratic presidential candidate is making the most of her time in the playground of the rich by organizing a string of campaign fundraisers, titled “Hillary in the Hamptons,” to rub shoulders with wealthy donors.
A source tells us, “The Clintons are renting the house for two weeks. They’ll be joined by Chelsea, her husband, Marc, and their baby daughter, Charlotte.” But, “Hillary doesn’t want headlines saying, ‘Presidential hopeful kicking back in the Hamptons,’ so she’ll be busy while she’s there.”
If she didn’t want those headlines, perhaps she should have stuck to Chappaqua. After all, her campaign desperately released their tax returns two weeks ago in an effort to distract from the e-mail scandal, claiming that it demonstrated unprecedented transparency. The Atlantic’s Molly Ball described it at the time as “a sort of charade of transparency.”
After disclosing that the Clintons made $140 million over the last seven years, including a staggering $57.5 million while Hillary was Secretary of State, perhaps Team Hillary is no longer worried about conspicuous consumption. They should be, though, especially considering how they made that money. Almost all of that income came from Bill’s career as a speaker, which became a lot more lucrative once Hillary opened her office at Foggy Bottom. At least a few cases (Uranium One most prominently) have the appearance of putting cash into the Clinton family pockets while his clients had business with the US government. And baby, business was good all around.
So perhaps this is a perfect choice for the Clintons this year, even as they try to trot out a “woman of the people” façade for the voters. I wonder what Bernie Sanders will have to say about that. At any rate, there may be no more appropriate place for the Clintons to plan their next windfall.
Meanwhile, here’s what the Hamptons think about being the playground of the rich. They’re not exactly expecting a woman of the people. Will Hillary deliver A Major Address On Income Inequality while she’s there? Because that would be … priceless.
Update: Edited final paragraph.
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