Ron Burkle, who has raised millions for the Clintons over the years, has not only stayed away from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, but is holding a fundraiser for one of her potential Republican opponents at his trendy West Hollywood Soho House.
Burkle rattled a fault line between Hollywood and Washington by telling The Los Angeles Times that Clinton’s campaign has “never asked me for a penny.” (The candidate is beginning a fundraising spree in Los Angeles.) Burkle also said he has decided to host a fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich next month — while telling the Times he may still back Clinton in the end.
So why hasn’t the Clinton campaign asked him for money? The answer may lie partly in Hillary Clinton’s efforts to minimize stories about her husband’s past.
The Times story notes that “Bill Clinton’s bromance with Burkle invited scandal.” Specifically, it describes how “unverified reports of the two men jetting around in a Burkle 757 filled with attractive young women leached from the tabloids to the mainstream media.”
Hillary Clinton, who has lately found herself barraged by a fresh round of questions about her husband’s sex life, has good reason to minimize reminders of it, rather than provide ammunition for her rivals.
Burkle told the Times that nothing untoward happened between Clinton and the women on the plane. He noted that his adolescent son was sometimes on board.
“No woman could get within 100 miles of [Bill Clinton] while I was on watch,” Burkle told the Times.
He also volunteered that he’s “very shy with girls. It takes me about a year to tell a girl I like her.”
Burkle had close ties with Bill Clinton after he left office. Clinton used to proclaim he’d only stay at “Ronnie’s” sprawling Beverly Hills estate, Greenacres, once owned by silent film star Harold Lloyd.
According to the paper, the former president made about $15 million from his participation in the former super market magnate’s Yucaipa Partners investment group but left the partnership with millions still owed to him.
But Burkle told the Times that Clinton just never got interested in helping drum up business for his investment firm.
“It wasn’t his thing,” Burkle said. “Whenever we went anywhere, he didn’t want to talk business.”
Burkle doesn’t seem as enchanted with Hillary Clinton as he was with Bill, lumping the former secretary of state with Democratic presidential nominees who failed to secure the White House, like Al Gore and John Kerry.
“As much as I like Gore, Kerry and [Hillary] Clinton, nobody can ever remember what they stand for,” he said, adding, “They overcomplicate it. … They don’t win on vision — they make it too complicated. They don’t win on likability.”
Burkle also said President Obama was a bitter disappointment, failing to deliver on his promise to work with Republicans.
13 Unforgettable Hillary Rodham Clinton Moments: Secretary of State, Candidate and First Lady (Photos)
Photos of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checking her email went viral in 2011. When Clinton joined Twitter last month, she chose a shot like this for her profile page, quickly racking up 650,000 followers.
In December 2011 Hillary joyfully greeted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. Suu Kyi led the fight against military rule in Burma, where she spent years under house arrest.
Hillary Rodham Clinton made her debut in politics back in 1974 during the Watergate Scandal as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff. She was a recent Yale Law School graduate and not yet married to Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton became a lightening rod on the 1992 campaign trail, drawing criticism for remarks that she could have "stayed home and baked cookies and had tea but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession" and that she was not a "some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette."
In 1996, then First Lady HIllary Clinton was put on the cover of Time magazine, with the story depicting the truth about the Whitewater real-estate scandal.
Hillary Clinton delivers a speech on the Monica Lewinsky affair with her husband and former President Bill Clinton standing by her side.
After taking on two ads that she claims misrepresented her stance on healthcare plans, an enraged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivers a speech on the shameful tactics used by rival Barack Obama in 2008. "Shame on you, Barack Obama!"
After losing the race for the Democratic candidacy for the 2008 election, Clinton ended her campaign with a memorable speech. "Even though we were not able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before."
Alongside President Obama and other senior members of the White House staff, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watches as the US Naval Seals take down terrorist Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011.
Hillary Clinton and actress Meryl Streep share a laugh at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors gala.
After returning to work from hospitalization from a blood clot, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received joke gifts from her colleagues to celebrate her return. She received a football jersey and helmet.
In January, Clinton delivered a fiery speech to Congress about the Benghazi attacks on U.S. soldiers.
In 2013, Hillary Clinton joined the Human Rights Campaign for same sex marriage. Her support for equal marriage was received as one of her biggest contributions to the campaign upon retiring as Secretary of State in February 2013.
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A look at 10 of former First Lady's biggest moments in the White House, as Secretary of State and as Democractic candidate for president.
Photos of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checking her email went viral in 2011. When Clinton joined Twitter last month, she chose a shot like this for her profile page, quickly racking up 650,000 followers.
