Pro-Hillary group hits back against attacks over paid speeches

A pro-Hillary Clinton group is hitting back against a focus on the former secretary of State’s paid speeches and lifestyle, arguing that she is a champion of the middle class. 

{mosads}A memo, from Correct the Record Executive Director Isaac Wright, indicates that some Clinton supporters feel the need to respond to the talk of Clinton’s speaking fees and travel requirements. 

“It is important, now more than ever, not to cede one of Clinton’s greatest strengths — her passion for advancing the middle class and renewing American upward mobility — to the right-wing talking points factory and its efforts to sow seeds of mistrust on the left,” the memo states.

Clinton has faced scrutiny over paid speeches and the travel requirements around them. The Washington Post reported last week on the details of Clinton’s speech to UCLA in March, where she was paid $300,000, a sum that went to the philanthropic Clinton Foundation.

The report detailed that Clinton’s staff had detailed requirements, rejecting the podium the university first planned to use and calling for hummus and sliced fruit backstage. 

BuzzFeed reported last month that Democrats spent at least $700,000 to fly Clinton on a private jet to her midterm campaign appearances this year. 

Conservative groups like America Rising PAC have seized on these reports to paint Clinton as out of touch, and the narrative could fuel calls on the left for a more populist candidate like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

“The right wing is propping up lines of attack on Clinton’s speaking engagements and other points in an attempt to tear down Hillary Clinton’s message of renewing American upward mobility,” the Correct the Record memo states. “This is a classic Karl Rove strategy of attacking an individual’s strength, rather than a weakness.”

A major question ahead of a likely Clinton campaign is what her central message will be. The memo points to Clinton’s “emerging themes of economic opportunity and advancing the middle class.”

It points to Clinton’s work on expanding health insurance as first lady and support for measures like raising the minimum wage and progressive tax policies as a senator.

“Hillary Clinton was raised in a middle-class, suburban home in Illinois,” the memo states, pointing to a life story that Clinton herself also highlighted on the midterm campaign trail. 

In June, after Clinton came under fire for saying she was “dead broke” upon leaving the White House, former President Bill Clinton defended her. 

“She’s not out of touch,” he said.