Hillary Clinton attends a protest rally over health-care issues of culinary workers in Las Vegas on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Hillary Clinton said Thursday she will release transcripts of paid, closed-door speeches she gave to Wall Street firms "when everyone else does," an answer unlikely to quiet criticism that she was too cozy with big banks.
Clinton was asked at an MSNBC-Telemundo town hall in Las Vegas why she won't release transcripts to show what pledges she may have made to financial firms. Clinton grew defensive as she told the questioner, a young man who said he had been a strong supporter of hers in 2008, that she would rein in excesses on Wall Street and prevent another crash. She said she would hand over speech materials if other public officials did the same.
Everyone gives private speeches, Clinton asserted, including her Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders. She called him "your candidate."
Clinton gave numerous paid speeches after leaving her post at the State Department as secretary in state in 2013, including some to financial firms, large corporations and trade groups. Some of those speeches were open to the press, some were not.
Clinton was challenged earlier this month to release transcripts of some of the most exclusive gatherings, in which Clinton addressed small groups of investment bankers and others. She had said she would look into it, but her answer Thursday suggests she won't hand over anything soon.