Wall Street Speeches

Note: Hillary for America has not confirmed or denied the authenticity of the speeches or emails being released by WikiLeaks.

On October 15, 2016, the site WikiLeaks began releasing batches of emails that were hacked from the Gmail account used by Hillary for America chair John Podesta. The Clinton campaign has condemned the hacking of Podesta’s email account and US intelligence officials have concluded that the hack was carried out by Russian forces in an effort to affect the presidential election. While an investigation into the hack continues, the emails continue to be released by WikiLeaks, and they have shed light on the inner workings of Clinton’s campaign.

The emails have revealed that Clinton’s campaign largely mirrors what the campaign has released and said publicly. The emails are not from Clinton, but from campaign officials and staffers discussing the day-to-day operation of a presidential campaign. While that is not necessarily exciting, the one revelation that has come from the emails is transcripts from three of Hillary Clinton’s  speeches from Goldman Sachs events in 2013. The speeches were marked up by the campaign to indicate any “troubling” passages should they every become public. What the transcripts reveal is that Clinton is a politician who understand the difficult balance between regulating Wall Street and protecting Main Street. While Clinton has been criticized for her connections to Wall Street, she has said that she is in favor of regulating banks and financial institutions as president and vowed to defend the Dodd-Frank Act.

In the speeches, Clinton is coy about her plans to run for president. She is also critical of the fundraising process saying that she would have to start raising money in 2014 should she decide to run for president. Clinton did not officially announce her campaign until April 2015.

Keep in mind, Clinton and her campaign have not confirmed the authenticity of the emails or speech transcripts, but they have not denied their authenticity either. By posting these documents, I do not condone the hacking of an American citizen’s private emails, but I believe that all publicly available documents are fair game in a presidential campaign and politics. There is a history of document leaks in American politics going back to the Pentagon Papers, and I believe that it is the duty of a free press to publish these documents as they have. Therefore, in the interest of full transparency, I decided to include them on the site as well. Links to the documents are presented the in grid below, along the date, location, and a description of each event.

Date	Event	Location
June 4, 2013	Goldman Sachs IBD CEA Annual Conference	Bluffton, South Carolina
October 24, 2013	Goldman Sachs AIMS Alternative Investments Symposiam	New York City, New York
October 29, 2013	Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit	Marana, Arizona

News Source: WikiLeaks, The New York Times, USA Today, Esquire, Politico, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Vox