Chelsea Clinton’s speaking fees top $80,000
LIKE her high-profile parents, Chelsea Clinton is becoming a draw on the speaking circuit, with some organisations shelling out as much as $80,000 per speech.
Attention to the younger Clinton’s speaking fees, first reported by The New York Times , comes as her mother, Hillary Rodham Clinton, commands a reported $213,000 or more per speech while she considers another bid for the presidency.
The family’s finances have come under scrutiny in recent weeks after the former secretary of state said during her book tour that the family was “dead broke” and in debt when husband Bill Clinton left the White House in January 2001. She later called that description “inartful.” The Washington Post reported that the former president has earned more than $106 million in speaking fees since leaving the White House.
The Clintons in a selfie with Jimmy Kimmel. Source: Twitter
Student leaders at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, meanwhile, have protested the UNLV Foundation’s decision to pay the former first lady and New York senator $239,000 for a speech in October. The University of California, Los Angeles, paid Hillary Clinton $319,000 to speak in March. Mrs. Clinton has said she donates her university fees to the philanthropic Clinton Foundation.
The youngest Clinton has taken a leading role in the family’s foundation, and she and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, are expecting their first child later this year. Her own compensation drew scrutiny when Politico reported that she earned $639,000 a year at NBC News, where she has infrequently appeared on camera as a special correspondent.
Bill and Chelsea watche on as Hillary Clinton is sworn in as Secretary of State. Source: AFP
The Clintons are represented by the New York-based Harry Walker Agency, which arranges paid speeches for political, business and media figures, including former Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Kamyl Bazbaz, a spokesman for Chelsea Clinton, said the majority of her speeches are unpaid and “all speeches organised by the Harry Walker Agency are on behalf of the Clinton Foundation and 100 per cent of the fees are remitted directly to the foundation.”
Some of Chelsea Clinton’s recent speaking engagements have included an address in March to the South by Southwest Festival in Texas and an event with female college student leaders at the University of Maryland.
Chelsea Clinton previously worked at McKinsey & Co and Avenue Capital Group but now devotes her time to the philanthropic Clinton Foundation. Source: AP
Kelly Krause, a SXSW spokeswoman, said the festival did not pay Clinton for the keynote address. Katie Broendel, a spokeswoman for the American Association of University Women, which organised the Maryland conference, said it typically offers a small honorarium to speakers but that Clinton did not accept it for the June speech.
Source: NewsComAu
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