WikiLeaks released what appears to be the transcripts of three paid speeches by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to Goldman Sachs. The alleged transcripts, released Saturday, came from Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta’s trove of hacked emails.
The documents show Clinton commenting on Wall Street and its role in financial regulations as well as WikiLeaks’ damage on U.S. foreign policy, and relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thus far, the Clinton campaign has yet to comment on the authenticity of the transcripts.
Glen Caplin, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said, “Donald Trump is cheering on a Russian attempt to influence our election through a crime reminiscent of Watergate but on a more massive scale.” Caplin said the release was “another effort to steal private campaign documents in order to influence an election.”
On Wall Street, Clinton said in a 2013 speech that it was necessary to curb abuses “for political reasons.”
“If you were an elected member of Congress and people in your constituency were losing jobs and shutting down businesses and everybody in the press is saying it’s all the fault of Wall Street, you can’t sit idly by and do nothing,” she said.
In another 2013 speech, Clinton also dismissed the notion that President Obama could have accomplished more if he had reached across the aisle to Republicans more often.
“He spent a lot of time early on in the first term with the Republicans in trying, as you recall…it turned out that the Republicans’ side, particularly in the House, couldn’t deliver,” Clinton said.
The Clinton campaign has thus far declined to comment on the release.
