Hillary Clinton is set to deliver a speech at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Foundation dinner Monday at the upscale Bellagio Resort despite outrage expressed by students at her steep $225,000 speaking fee.
Back in June when news broke of the former secretary of State’s speech cost, student government leaders at UNLV labeled the fee “outrageous” and asked Clinton to give some — if not all — of the sum back to the university. The $225,000 will instead line the pockets of the Clinton Foundation.
Despite sending a letter to the Clinton Foundation requesting the speech fee be returned, the UNLV student leaders were shunned. Who would have expected such a cold response from a lawmaker who once said the high cost of college tuition is one of the “biggest problems” in need of fixing in the United States?
Furthermore, it’s not only students who have complained of Hillary’s monetary demands. UNLV President Don Snyder has also called parts of Hillary’s speech contract “distasteful.”
In Clinton’s defense, he may not have been referring explicitly to the $225,000. He could, of course, have been eluding to her demand for a presidential suite, rooms for her staff and private air travel, among multiple other things.
Even more “outrageous” than Clinton’s contract is perhaps the fact that she initially had demanded $300,000 from the university for the 90-minutes-or-less appearance at the event.
Clinton’s contractual demands have also been fuel for infuriated local journalists like Jon Ralston, who back in August asked appropriately of Clinton and the UNLV event, “Who gets to hold her crown while she speaks?”
