Vice President Joe Biden, on a pace to collect millions in speeches since he left the White House, is under scrutiny for the high price he charges — and who he addresses.
America Rising, a group that opposes Democrats, for example, has sought and received a contract for Biden’s recent $200,000 speech to an economic group at Lake Michigan College.
And following a New York Times report that focused on Biden’s speeches, the group said Wednesday, “America Rising PAC is calling on Biden to disclose his compensation and release details from each of these paid speeches.”
The Times suggested that the 2020 Democratic front-runner has done well on the speaking circuit.
.@AmericaRising calls on @JoeBiden to release details on all paid speeches https://t.co/Fwc6t5XPn2 https://t.co/erZ2OBoxzj
— Sarah Dolan (@sarahedolan) January 23, 2019
Citing the $200,000 October speech, the Times said, “If Mr. Biden were to have charged a similar range of fees for all his comparable speeches since leaving office, he would most likely have collected between $4 million and $5 million through speeches over the last two years.”
That speech was controversial because he talked up Republican Rep. Fred Upton, who won re-election. It disturbed local Democrats who were trying to defeat Upton and saw Biden’s positive statements in TV ads at the end of the 2018 campaign.
The contract, provided to Secrets, showed that Biden was alerted that the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan crowd would be mostly “older, conservative” Republicans.
America Rising said the Times highlighted “one of the many issues Joe Biden will have squaring his actions with an increasingly progressive Democratic primary should he enter the race for president: paid speeches.”
