Bill Clinton on Hillary and wealth: 'She's not out of touch'

Bill Clinton says his wife, Hillary, is “not out of touch” despite her recent comments that drew negative attention to their personal wealth.

The former president defended his wife’s commitment to the poor and working class Americans during an interview with NBC’s David Gregory conducted in Denver on Tuesday as part of the Clinton Global Initiative America conference. Clinton suggested the focus shouldn’t be on his family’s personal wealth, but on “the central challenge of our time, which is the demise of the American dream.”

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been criticized by Republicans and even some Democrats for saying during an interview with ABC News earlier this month that she and her husband were “dead broke” after he left the White House in 2001.

Then she told The Guardian that voters “don’t see me as part of the problem” with income inequality in the United States “because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names; and we’ve done it through the dint of hard work.”

The Republican National Committee has mocked Clinton in an ad for what it describes as her “whining about being broke,” and even Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — a former political director in the Clinton White House — teased the once-and-maybe-future presidential candidate.

In his Tuesday interview, Bill Clinton said it is “factually true” that his family was several million dollars in debt — largely from legal bills stemming from the Whitewater investigation and impeachment – when he left the White House. Financial records show they paid off their legal bills by 2004.

A CNN analysis showed Clinton earned $106 million by making speeches from the end of his presidency through January 2013. Hillary Clinton has defended her own paid speeches, reportedly earning as much as $200,000 a pop, saying it is a “better thing than getting connected with any one group or company.”

Bill Clinton said in his interview: “Everybody now assumes that what happened in the intervening years was automatic. I’m shocked that it’s happened. I’m shocked that people still want me to come give talks. And so I’m grateful.”

Clinton’s interview will air Sunday on Meet the Press, moderated by Gregory.