Sean Spicer told the New York Times that he “now regrets one of his most infamous moments as press secretary: his decision to charge into the White House briefing room in January and criticize accurate news reports that Barack Obama’s inauguration crowd was bigger than President Donald Trump’s.”
Said Spicer: “Of course I do, absolutely.”
“Since leaving the White House last month, Mr. Spicer has been on a speaking and television circuit — trying to rehabilitate his image.”
Bloomberg: “Last month, just before her book What Happened was published, Barack Obama spoke in New York to clients of Northern Trust Corp. for about $400,000, a person familiar with his appearance said. Last week, he reminisced about the White House for Carlyle Group LP, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms, according to two people who were there. Next week, he’ll give a keynote speech at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s health-care conference.”
“Obama is coming to Wall Street less than a year after leaving the White House, following a path that’s well trod and well paid. While he can’t run for president, he continues to be an influential voice in a party torn between celebrating and vilifying corporate power. His new work with banks might suggest which side of the debate he’ll be on and disappoint anyone expecting him to avoid a trap that snared Clinton. Or, as some of his executive friends see it, he’s just a private citizen giving a few paid speeches to other successful people while writing his next book.”
“Gov. Chris Christie’s possible career as a sports broadcaster may not have panned out, but he might still have a shot at a television gig,” CNN reports.
“Christie has had conversations with both MSNBC and CNN about possible contributor deals after his term ends… Christie is not in talks with Fox News.”
Mike Allen: “An agent who met with Sean Spicer told him that the going rate for speeches by most former White House press secretaries ranged from about $20,000 to $30,000. The agent said Spicer, who went elsewhere, thought he could get much more.”
Said the agent: “He thought he was a much bigger deal than the others. His name I.D. is massive — he’s obsessed with that. He kept talking about how everyone stops him for selfies — that’s one of his go-to lines. It’s true, by the way. It happened when I was talking to him.”
Sean Spicer is cashing in on “candor” by signing with the Worldwide Speakers Group, Politico reports.
From the pitch: “Audiences around the world will benefit from the same candor, wit and insight that Spicer brought to the White House briefing room.”
“Delivering paid speeches – the lucrative and well-trod pasture of former lawmakers and their name-brand aides – will be one of the main components of Spicer’s post-White House life, according to multiple people briefed on his plans. But he is also planning to pitch a book proposal and his agent, Robert Barnett, as of last week was making the rounds to networks to negotiate a possible deal for his client.”
Washington Post: “At least 25 congressional campaigns, state parties and the Republican Governors Association have together spent more than $473,000 at Trump hotels or golf resorts this year… Trump’s companies collected an additional $793,000 from the RNC and the president’s campaign committee, some of which included payments for rent and legal consulting.”
“The nearly $1.3 million spent by Republican political committees at Trump entities in 2017 has helped boost his company at a time when business is falling off at some core properties.”
Paul Manafort “partnered on an $850 million New York real estate deal with an ally of Vladimir Putin and a Ukrainian moneyman whom the Justice Department recently described as an organized crime member,” the Daily Beast reports.
“That’s according a 2008 memo written by Rick Gates, Manafort’s business partner and fellow alumnus of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In it, Gates enthused about finalizing with the financing necessary to acquire New York’s louche Drake Hotel.”
Kellyanne Conway has taken steps to sell her political consulting firm, Bloomberg reports.
“Conway received the right to defer capital gains taxes for her sale of the Polling Company/Woman Trend… She had valued her 100 percent stake in the firm at between $1 million and $5 million on a personal financial disclosure form that the White House released in March.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “isn’t just a progressive icon, she’s a merchandising industry unto herself,” Politico reports.
“The presidential prospect is at the center of a sprawling business built around her appeal to liberals across the country — a reminder of the unabashed devotion she inspires on the left and the footprint she’ll cast in the 2020 Democratic primary.”
“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have hired Democratic pollster Joel Benenson, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama and the chief strategist to Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, as a consultant,” Politico reports.
“Bringing on Benenson is the latest sign that they’re pushing their philanthropic work more heavily into the political and policy world.”
“They paid me.”
— Hillary Clinton, in an interview by Recode, on why she spoke at Goldman Sachs.
Former President Barack Obama will be paid $400,000 to speak at Cantor Fitzgerald’s healthcare conference this September, the Washington Examiner reports.
Matthew Yglesias: “That’s so much cash, for so little work, that it would be extraordinarily difficult for anyone to turn it down… Indeed, to not take the money might be a problem for someone in Obama’s position. It would set a precedent… Which is exactly why he should have turned down the gig.”
CNBC: “Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway got caught up in an ethics controversy for urging Americans to ‘go buy Ivanka’s stuff’ during an interview on Fox News in early February saying ‘you can find it online.’ It turns out, shoppers did.”
“Sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise dropped 26 percent online in January compared to January 2016, but the trend reversed in February. According to Slice Intelligence, online sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise swelled 207 percent in February from the prior month.”
“Despite a boycott and a decision by Nordstrom to no longer carry the brand, Ivanka Trump’s fashion line soared in online sales of individual items last month,” USA Today reports.
Mother Jones: “Campaigns and political action committees regularly purchase supporter lists from other organizations, as a shortcut to raise money and recruit volunteers. Large, lucrative lists can become valuable commodities in the campaign marketplace. (President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign rented his list to Organizing for Action for $1.2 million in 2015.) But former Sanders staffers and consultants scoff at the demand for the list. They way they see it, clamoring for access misses the point. The list wasn’t the campaign’s secret weapon; Sanders was.”
Said senior Sanders adviser Becky Bond: “They keep thinking it’s the list. It’s so crazy. It’s like someone who buys a $12,000 bicycle and thinks they can win the Tour de France.”