Debbie Wasserman Schultz created a new standard for public debate that will undoubtedly only apply to liberals: If it happens in the private sector, it stays in the private sector.
The former chair of the DNC bristled on CNN Tuesday at a line of questioning over the appropriateness and hypocrisy of Barack Obama, a tough talker on Wall Street, recently accepting $400,000 for a speech to Wall Street.
She shook her head as host Erin Burnett plyed clips of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren publicly criticizing Obama’s decision.
“It’s not a good idea and I’m sorry that President Obama made that choice,” Sanders said. “I just think it’s distasteful.”
“I was troubled by that,” she said in a Sirius/XM radio interview. “One of the things I talk about in the book is the influence of money. I describe it as a snake that slithers through Washington. And that it shows up in so many different ways here in Washington.”
Schultz responded, “Look it is none of anyone’s business what someone who is a member of the private sector decides to accept as compensation.
“With all due respect to anyone who chooses to comment publicly on what Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or anyone earns as a member of the private sector, it’s just like NYOB! It’s none of your business.”
She said “there to be consequences” for the actions of well-paid bank CEOs, but claimed that was different.
“But as far as the compensation that a private citizen takes for a speech that they give, um, that’s not my concern nor any of our business,” Schultz said.
“I look more at the public record of someone like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and their public record is pristine. They both fought back against the big banks and their practices and I have every confidence in the service they provided.”
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