While Bill Clinton has said he won’t stop giving paid speeches during his wife’s run for the White House, if she wins, he will give up his lucrative post-presidential career and become a full-time first spouse during her term in office.
During an open interview with Bloomberg TV at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver Wednesday, Clinton was asked whether he would still give paid speeches if his wife were to become president.
“No. I don’t think so,” the former president said. “Because once you get to be president, then you are just making a daily story.”
Clinton added that he would continue to give speeches, but wouldn’t be paid for them, as many other spouses of presidents have done.
His comments Wednesday were his first remarks that suggested how his speaking commitments would change if his wife were in the Oval Office.
The couple’s lucrative time on the paid speaking circuit has been a political flashpoint since Hillary Clinton left the State Department in 2013. In 2014 alone, the Clintons gave 104 paid speeches, netting the couple $25.3 million.
Political critics have said the paid speeches make the Clintons out of touch and show that they are beholden to the interest that pays for their time.
When he said earlier this year that he would continue to deliver paid speeches during Hillary Clinton’s presidential run, Bill Clinton told NBC, “I gotta pay our bills,” adding that he gives “a lot of it” to the foundation every year.
Bill Clinton started The Clinton Foundation in 2001 after his two terms in the White House to continue work as a private citizen on issues he cared about during his presidency. The umbrella-like organization, however, has grown into a massive entity that has since raised more than $2 billion and operates in more than 180 countries.
During Wednesday’s interview, Clinton said that whether he continues to work at the foundation will be his wife’s decision.
“That will be not an easy decision should she be elected president,” he said. “She will have to decide what is my highest and best use, including being around to buck her up every morning.”
Clinton added that he and his wife “will have to talk about it.”
“I think the foundation will be just fine,” he continued. “But I am determined to stay as long this year as I can to make sure we are in the best possible shape.”
The foundation, however, has been a major source of political headaches for Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign. Although Republicans have repeatedly and effectively targeted the organization as a place for wealthy donors and corporations to buy influence, the foundation has admitted that it has made financial filing mistakes in the past.
Earlier this year, foundation aides admitted that a 2010 donation from the Algerian government was not properly approved under the guidelines the Obama administration put in place with the organization when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009. The donation, which was marked to help Haiti, was made a few days after the country was rocked by an earthquake in January 2010.
On Wednesday, Clinton said that despite the mistake, he would take the Algerian money again.
“Two days after the Haiti earthquake … there were very few countries in the world I would not accept from for help to Haiti,” he said.
He later added that “there may be a thing or two that I would change, but the basic idea, I think it is right. I still think it is the right thing to do.”