Hillary Clinton has built her campaign around championing “the little people” — and according to her rhetoric, that means getting the big, big money out of politics.
“You’re not going to find anybody more committed to aggressive campaign finance reform than me.”
“You’re not going to find anybody more committed to aggressive campaign finance reform than me,” Clinton said following the New Hampshire primary.
But Clinton, like many Democrats, is a do-as-I-say-not-as-I do preacher. She’s helped set up huge super PACs with millions in donations and hobnobbed with blue-blood moneybags from Hollywood to Wall Street — all while stuffing cash into her Fendi bag.
[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lrWKWstiB4″]
Clinton’s campaign has $42 million socked away as of May 31, a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday showed. Her super PAC, Priorities USA, has even more — $52 million. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has just $1.3 million in the bank.
It’s no coincidence that Clinton is a big fan of Wall Street — or at least the cash it generates for her coffers. She made millions giving speeches to Wall Street banks — $250,000 a pop — and the big-money boys there know a friend when they see one. Among her top donors so far: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase. In fact, Clinton has pulled down more than $30 million so far from the financial-services industry, and she knows there’s more whenever she wants it.
“What do we compare it to, historically?” Devine said. “One of the difficulties we so often get into [with Trump] is there’s no comparison point.”
In the month of May alone, Clinton raised $27 million, Trump just $3.1 million. In comparison, Obama raised $25.7 million in May 2012 while Mitt Romney collected $11.7 million, according to FEC reports. In 2012, the two candidates’ spending for the month was close — $14.6 million compared with $12.6 million for Romney. Although Obama’s superior war chest allowed him to out-spend Romney every month in 2012, the deficit was never nearly as large as the one Trump faces now.
“It’s an incredible disparity, especially when you compare back to Romney,” said Christopher Devine, a political science professor at the University of Dayton.
But Trump has signaled he is taking the disparity more seriously, and on Tuesday downplayed the significance of his money disadvantage, saying in a statement that he has only now started to raise money. He pointed out that the campaign’s first fundraising event was on May 25. And he suggested that his paltry $1.3 million cash on hand is misleading because he can continue to write checks from his personal fortune — which could be a lot for the multi-billionaire.
“If need be, there could be unlimited ‘cash on hand’ as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over 50 million dollars,” he said in the statement. “Our campaign is leaner and more efficient, like our government should be.”
On Tuesday night, Trump laid out why Clinton is raising so much money. “You know when she raises this money, every time she raises money, she’s making deals,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘Could I be the ambassador to this, can I do that, make sure my business is being taken care of.’ I mean, give me a break.
“All of the money that she’s raising, that’s blood money,” Trump said.
But after months of bragging that he would not seek money from special interests — and dominating his GOP primary opponents with a deluge of free media — Trump on Tuesday sent an email to supporters appealing for cash, promising to match any donation over the next 48 hours.
[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHhqIN8RWyQ”]
“The Democrats are desperate, and they’re throwing everything they have at me,” he wrote. “They just keep failing and losing … They will say and do anything to elect Hillary Clinton, but I am standing in the way. I’m fighting back against Crooked Hillary and her pathetic cronies, as well as the dishonest liberal media, and I need your help.”
Corey Lewandowski, ousted this week as Trump’s campaign manager, told CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday that money is “pouring in” now that Trump has turned his attention to raising cash. Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly on Monday that it was time for a “different kind of a campaign” from the one that worked in the primaries. But he expressed pride in the fact that he has run on fewer dollars and fewer staffers than the bloated Clinton campaign.
[lz_graphiq id=1LMM7vsPSy9]
“The result so far is the same,” he said. “I should be credited for that.”
Devine said much of Romney’s early campaign money went toward building a brand. “Donald Trump doesn’t need to do that,” he said. “He has a very well-established brand. There’s less pressure on him.”
“What do we compare it to, historically?” Devine said. “One of the difficulties we so often get into [with Trump] is there’s no comparison point.”
By late Tuesday, the Hillary camp was spooked. In an evening email — after Trump said he’d match every dollar pledged to him in the next 48 hours — her campaign said: “That means he’s getting serious — and if every dollar they raise continues to be doubled with Trump’s personal fortune, this race could change very quickly.”
Indeed it could.
Join the Discussion
Comments are currently closed.