Hillary Clinton’s Big Oil Money: Bernie Sanders Wants Apology, Says It’s No ‘Lie’

Hillary Clinton had a fiery moment with a Greenpeace activist, claiming that she’s “so sick” of the Bernie Sanders’ lies about her campaign’s finances. The Sanders camp insists they didn’t lie and want an apology. The truth is arguably in the middle, but the fight highlights the current debate over campaign finance.

The encounter with activist Eva Resnick-Day is featured below.

Greenpeace makes the claim that Hillary Clinton has received $4.5 million from large donors from the fossil fuel industry: coal, gas, and oil. According to FactCheck, Clinton hasn’t received money from PACs connected to that industry. She took $307,000 from employees, but Sanders took $54,000 from the same group.

Here’s where things become debatable.

A Super-PAC supporting Hillary Clinton, Priorities Action USA, has taken money from fossil fuels, $3.25 million of it. A political candidate cannot legally coordinate with a Super-PAC, and certainly can’t dictate terms about what money they take. According to the study, her committee also took over $1.4 million.

But, the laws are incredibly relaxed and have been skewered for their ineffectiveness many times. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, comedian Stephen Colbert once created a Super PAC and tested the limits of the laws with Daily Show host Jon Stewart, showing how easy the rules can be bypassed.

Priorities Action USA, for example, is supported by close Clinton allies, according to the Washington Post, and is tacitly sanctioned by the candidate.

So who is lying?

Bernie Sanders says it’s her.

“We were not lying, we were telling the truth. The truth is that Secretary Clinton has relied heavily on funds from lobbyists working for the oil, gas and coal industry, according to an analysis done by Greenpeace.”

Hillary Clinton’s campaign refuses to apologize, and Clinton’s National Communication Director Jen Palmieri called the comments an “attack.”

“Their latest attack over campaign contributions ignores their own donations from individuals who work for oil and gas companies, and most importantly it ignores Hillary Clinton’s record and agenda. We will not apologize for calling out these kinds of schemes for what they are – a desperate move from a campaign that has clearly decided that the only hope for a path to victory is through misleading attacks.”

Greenpeace has no affiliation with Bernie Sanders, nor have they endorsed him. The contributions to the Vermont senator from individuals total roughly $50,000 (the amount cited above).

According to NBC News, Hillary Clinton has said she wants to move the country away from fossil fuels to more sustainable renewable energy sources.

This isn’t the first time Sanders and Clinton have clashed over campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry. Earlier in the race, the three candidates at the time — Clinton, Sanders, and O’Malley — were pressed in Iowa to sign a pledge not take donations from that industry.

The former Secretary of State said at the time, “I don’t know that I ever have, I’m not exactly one of their favorites.”

When someone pointed out that she has, Hillary Clinton replied, “Have I? Okay, well, I’ll check on that.” Bernie Sanders and O’Malley signed the pledge; Clinton did not.

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate in the race to have no affiliated Super PAC, although there are three unaffiliated Super PACs pledging their support for the candidate. Two of them are Billionaires for Bernie and Collective Actions PAC. As of February, the two have raised a total of $443 together and Sanders has worked to disassociate himself from the groups.

The last is The National Nurses United for Patient Protection, financed by the nurses union, which has spent over a million dollars supporting Sanders. The organization isn’t connected to the Vermont senator, and doesn’t want to be identified as a Super PAC. It was formed long before Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and works with any candidate that supports their causes.

As for Hillary Clinton’s campaign finances, here’s the study from Greenpeace on her full donations from the fossil fuel industry.

[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]