WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton says she and hubby Bill Clinton were “dead broke” after leaving the White House and “struggled” to make ends meet.
“We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt,” Clinton said in an interview airing tonight on ABC.
“We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy.”
“Bill has worked really hard — and it’s been amazing to me — he’s worked very hard. First of all, we had to pay off all our debts, which was, you know, he had to make double the money because of obviously taxes and then pay off the debts and get us houses and take care of family members.”
The Clintons actually had a helping hand as they got their financial lives in order. Wealthy Clinton pal Terry McAuliffe (now governor of Virginia) loaned them $1.3 million for the purchase of their $1.7 million Chappaqua home.
The home allowed Hillary Clinton to establish residency in New York to run for the Senate.
The Clintons went on to earn an astonishing $109 million between 2000 and 2007, according to disclosure reports. They paid $34 million in taxes over that time frame — more like a third than half.
The Clintons also purchased a $2.9 million home off DC’s Embassy Row, from which Hillary Clinton conducted the Sawyer interview.
Clinton described her struggles when pressed by Sawyer on why she gives speeches for a reported $200,000 a pop.
“I thought making speeches for money was a much better thing than getting connected with any one group or company as so many people who leave public life do,” Clinton said in a dig at former colleagues who go into lobbying or consulting.
That hasn’t kept her from lending her name to a variety of corporations, including Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, the Carlyle Group, a chain drug store association, and a realtors’ group.
She has reportedly earned $5 million giving speeches of her own — a figure Clinton did not dispute during the interview.
She also earned more than $10 million from her 2003 memoir, “Living History.”
Bill Clinton left office with about $5 million in legal debts. The debts were incurred defending him during a series of legal actions involving the Whitewater land deal, Paula Jones, and his impeachment trial in the Senate.
An Associated Press story from 1999 listed the Clintons’ wealth as between $1.26 million and $5.7 million.