Paul Blumenthal has written a piece on the Huffington Post that discusses Hillary Clinton’s complicated relationship to those on Wall Street. He notes that during the Democratic presidential debate, Clinton offered anecdotal proof of her commitment to take a hard line on Wall Street by pointing out the existence of a certain super PAC called Future45. It was created by “two billionaire hedge fund managers,” Paul Singer and Ken Griffin. “So they clearly think I'm going to do what I say I will do,” according to Clinton.
Those two billionaires, however, don't necessarily represent the broader world of hedge funds or Wall Street.
In fact, campaign finance records show the $204,202 that Clinton has raised from hedge fund executives is by far the most of any 2016 candidate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And, as The Huffington Post previously reported, Clinton is the top recipient among the presidential candidates of contributions from the largest banking institutions.[all emphasis mine]
Read the emphasized parts again. Clinton has actually received more money since April from the largest banking institutions than any single Republican candidate. Check this out (from the link in the quote, which is a different article by Blumenthal):
Campaign Contributions From Big Bank Executives & Employees
Attribution: The Huffington Post, Paul Blumenthal; Source: Federal Election Commission.The big banks have actually given more to Clinton than they have to any single Republican candidate. Let that sink in for a minute.
Does this mean that Jeb! Bush was extensively involved in post-911 rebuilding efforts too? I don’t remember hearing about that, do you? Maybe I need to write him a belated thank you note.
For the record, the same Huffington Post link shows us which large banks have quote-unquote “shown the most gratitude for post-911 efforts” to both and Clinton and Jeb!
Where Did Clinton, Bush, Rubio Get Their Bank Contributions From?
Attribution: The Huffington Post, Paul Blumenthal; Source: Federal Election Commission.According to Blumenthal:
The policies put forward by Clinton do stop short of those proposed by her primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to break up the banks and restructure them.
Is it possible that a key reason that the big banks have made large donations to Clinton has nothing to do with rebuilding efforts after 911? If so, what might that reason possibly be?
P.S. I want to also recommend another diary Saturday's Debate Haunts Hillary Clinton written by HumanofEarth. It begins with
The exchange is now famous.
Bernie calling Hillary out on her Wall-Street-funded campaign, and Hillary responding with a bizarre answer invoking women and 9/11.
and then goes on to explore numerous reactions to Clinton’s response from a wide variety of sources.