Normally calm Hillary Clinton showed a flash of temper on a rope line today, when a Greenpeace activist asked her about donations from the fossil fuel industry.
After answering that she takes donations from a lot of people who work in various industries, she told the activist, "I am so sick -- I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me!"
According to Open Secrets, Clinton has received over $307,000 from people associated with the fossil fuel industry. I qualify that term because when donations are given, donors are required to state their employer and occupation. That shouldn't suggest that the industry itself is funding her.
Similarly, Bernie Sanders has received over $54,000 from the fossil fuel industry, again from people who are employed within it.
The question was a poorly-worded one, as are most questions concerning industry-based donations. Looking at donations from outside groups to her and also to Sanders, the fossil fuel industry doesn't even make the top 20.
According to this article from the Huffington Post last July, Clinton's bundlers included lobbyists from Chevron. But the article also points out that donations given were from employees in key industries, and not the industries themselves.
According to the same article, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley pledged not to take any money from fossil fuel donors. Yet he has clearly received contributions, which I assume come from employees, just as Clinton's do.
Perhaps this was the source of her aggravation with the question.
