Bill Clinton says he left the White House $16 million in debt
CNBC ^ | 6/5/2018 | Kathleen Elkins
Posted on 6/6/2018, 11:37:54 AM by simpson96
When Bill Clinton finished his presidential term in 2001, he was millions of dollars in the red, thanks to legal fees. "I left the White House $16 million in debt," the 42nd president told NBC's Craig Melvin during an interview that mentioned his handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
As NPR reports, "The presidential salary of $200,000 had been overwhelmed by defense attorneys' fees for scandal investigations, the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton and action to suspend his Arkansas law license."
While he and his wife Hillary came out of the White House "dead broke," as Hillary put it, their millions of dollars in debt were erased in 2004, just three years later. And by the time she ran for President in 2016, Forbes estimated her net worth at $45 million.
The Clintons climbed out of the multimillion-dollar hole via paid speeches and lucrative books deals. In his first year out of office, Bill gave 57 speeches and earned $13.7 million from his "speaking and writing" business, according to their tax return. A single speech generated anywhere from $125,000, the standard fee, to $350,000, NPR notes.
That same year, Hillary reportedly received a $2.9 million installment of an $8 million advance for her book "Living History." Bill collected a $10 million advance for "My Life." And 2001 was just the beginning. The politicians brought home more than $153.7 million in paid speeches between 2001 and 2015.
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