Former President Barack Obama's decision to accept a $400,000 fee to speak at forum hosted by Wall Street bond firm is no surprise, Larry Klayman, founder of government watchdog Freedom Watch, told Newsmax TV.
"Given his past history, you can be amused now, but it's consistent with everything he's done," Klayman, a former federal prosecutor, told host Bill Tucker on Tuesday's "America Talks Live."
"He's claimed that he's not a 1 percenter; he's criticized rich people in this country; he is a socialist. But, of course, he lives in Kalorama in Washington [D.C.] in a house that's valued at millions of millions of dollars.
"The fact that he would take $400,000 a pop is no surprise. . . . That's so much cash, for so little work, that it would be extraordinarily difficult for anyone to turn it down."
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Not that Obama is the first former president to cash in.
"The precedent established by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, to say nothing of former Federal Reserve Chairs Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan and a slew of other high-ranking former officials, is that there is nothing wrong with taking the money," Klayman said.
Fox Business reported Tuesday that Obama will be paid $400,000 as the keynote speaker at a healthcare conference organized by Cantor Fitzgerald LP.
The network said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's fee for speaking at a private business was roughly half of Obama's.
"Is there an irony here because he spoke incessantly about the income gap and is now earning from those same people he criticized? Yes, it is," Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf told Fox.
"Should we expect it? Yes, we should, because all former presidents do this. He went on the attack against Wall Street, and now he's being fed by those same people he called 'fat cats.' It's more hypocritical than ironic."
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