Q: If Hillary Clinton is elected president, will Bill become first gentleman? Will this position limit his speech income and how will it affect the Clinton Foundation?
—Ben Wiechman, Alpharetta
A: Bill Clinton's title, if Hillary Clinton is elected president, is undecided, but it could be first gentleman.
Hillary Clinton has joked that she’s partial to “first dude” or “first mate.”
White House historian William Seale predicted Bill Clinton will be called “former President Clinton” or “Mrs. Clinton’s husband, President Clinton,” USA Today wrote in July, if Hillary Clinton wins.
Bill Clinton “has suggested he wouldn’t put his work entirely on hold, including delivering speeches ‘on the subjects I’m interested in,’” the Wall Street Journal wrote in July.
The Clintons received an average of $210,795 per speech from 2001 to May 2015, CNN.com reported this year.
Bill Clinton has said he’ll step down from the board of the directors of the Clinton Foundation, the charitable organization he founded in 1997.
“I’m going to get off the board, we’re going to give up corporate contributions and the individual contributions will be reported on a regular basis,” he told CNBC on Tuesday.
Bill Clinton wrote on the foundation’s website in August that, if Hillary Clinton is elected president, it will “accept contributions only from U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and U.S.-based independent foundations, whose names we will continue to make public on a quarterly basis.”
The official name also will be changed to Clinton Foundation, from its current Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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