Bill and Hillary Clinton are far from "dead broke" these days.
When she sat down with ABC's Diane Sawyer for an interview on the release of her new book,
"Hard Choices," former first lady, secretary of state and presidential contender
Hillary Clinton caused a furor when she said, "We came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt. We had no money when we got there and we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education. It was not easy."
Business Insider recently reported that the Clintons are much better off today, having earned $108,817,646, mostly in speaking fees, between the time Bill Clinton left the White House in 2001 and 2007.
The Clintons paid a 31 percent tax rate, forking over $33 million in federal income tax, and gave $10 million to charity.
Add to that an estimated $785,700 that Hillary Clinton earned in salary as secretary of state and it's easy to see why she would start backpedaling.
She told
PBS' Gwen Ifill that her earlier words were "unartful," and hastened to add, "I shouldn't have said the five or so words that I said, but my unartful use of those few words doesn't change who I am, what I've stood for my entire life, what I stand for today."
Hillary Clinton charges $200,000 for speaking appearances, and word is that she received well over $8 million in advance for her book.
Sawyer asked, "Do you think Americans are going to understand five times the median income in this country for one speech?"
Clinton replied, "Well, let me put it this way: I thought making speeches for money was a much better thing than being connected with any one group or company — as so many people who leave public life do."
Daughter Chelsea Clinton was reported to be drawing down a massive $600,000 annual salary as an NBC correspondent, without doing much work to earn it, causing a flap among "real," and less royally paid, correspondents at
NBC.
Former President Bill Clinton insisted his wife is "not out of touch" with regular folks, but she brushed that off, telling Ifill, "My husband was very sweet today, but I don't need anybody to defend my record. I think my record speaks for itself."
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