In Re: Philip Wasserman, “Politicians and Side Hustles,” letters, June 19.
Mr. Wasserman, you are either kidding or you are totally ignorant of what the Cabinet secretaries of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden are worth and where they went to work after leaving their Cabinet positions.
Just a few Democrat Cabinet officers under Obama and Biden who made millions while in office and are making even more after leaving: Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Leon Panetta, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Xavier Becerra, Alejandro Mayorkas … shall I go on?
Like I said, this is certainly nothing new or unique to people serving in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet or any other president’s Cabinet. And unless I missed it, neither of President Trump’s Cabinet secretaries you mentioned are getting rich while serving in his Cabinet and one of them was quite well off before joining the Cabinet, and another of his secretaries, Doug Burgum, is also waiving his salary because he is also very wealthy.
And are you trying to convince us that Biden didn’t become filthy rich while in office? Trump was filthy rich before becoming the president and is arguably losing money while serving and being sued non-stop by highly partisan attorneys general. Unless I’m mistaken, waiving their salary has only been done by four previous presidents: George Washington, Herbert Hoover, John Kennedy and Donald Trump. The last three donated their salaries to charities.
It is very apparent that you are no fan of Trump and that is obviously your right, but at least compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges when making such inaccurate statements that are very easily checked by a simple search on the internet.
Rick Barker
Valencia
