Obama scores another $400K speaking fee amid criticism
By Claire Atkinson April 27, 2017 | 5:42pm | Updated
Even as President Obama faced criticism for getting $400,000 for a speech to a Wall Street bank, he pocketed the same amount of money for a second speech, The Post has learned.
Obama made another $400,000 on Thursday when he appeared at the A&E Networks advertising upfront at The Pierre Hotel. He was interviewed over 90 minutes at the Midtown Manhattan event by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in front of the cable network’s advertisers.
Out of office just 98 days, Obama caught some flack earlier this week when it was learned that he had agreed to speak in September at a health care event sponsored by Wall Street bank Cantor Fitzgerald.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she was “troubled” by the big-ticket talk.
At the A&E event, Obama, who got a standing ovation when he entered the room, asked about what he missed most about the White House, said it was sitting on the Truman balcony on summer nights and gazing at the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, a source in attendance said.
Obama also told the crowd that in his three months out of office he has not yet been behind the wheel of a car and he’s learning how to use the coffee machine in the Obamas’ new home in Washington DC.
The event, called a History Makers lunch and put together by A&E’s History Channel, was hosted by A&E chief Nancy Dubuc.
Goodwin asked Obama how, while president, he handled frustrating moments. She mentioned Lincoln would write angry letters and then put them in a desk and not mail them.
Obama responded: “For starters, by not having a Twitter account.”
Among the luminaries were; Harvey Weinstein; Anna Wintour; Bob Sauerberg; Janice Min and Penske Media CEO, Jay Penske.
FILED UNDER A&E , BARACK OBAMA , ELIZABETH WARREN , SPEECHES , WALL STREET |
