The filmmakers hoping to take down Hillary Clinton

“It’s going to be a win of Reagan proportions.”

The controversial film, based on the best-selling book by Peter Schweizer, investigates how the Clintons managed to reconfigure their finances, f-rom being “dead broke” when they left the White House in 2001 to amassing in excess of US$150 million with US$2 billion in donations to their foundation in only a few years.

The film was recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival to an audience of journalists and theatre distributors glued to their seats.

Bannon says, “What I find shocking is that there’s this thought process that Hillary Clinton is going to be President of the United States, and to even think of Donald Trump is a joke. Journalists think it’s inconceivable that she is not going to be President of the United States. Then they see the film and the first reaction you get is, ‘How come nobody knows this stuff? How come it’s not out in the popular press?’”

The film chronicles the years in which the Clintons and their foundation amassed money and whe-re they got it f-rom, including fees paid to Bill Clinton for speeches while his wife was Secretary of State. This includes US$1.4 million he received for two speeches in Nigeria in 2011 and 2012, during the time the country’s President Goodluck Jonathan was under fire for his human rights record.

Bill Clinton wasn’t the only one making money f-rom speeches. This is how much Hillary made f-rom 2013 to 2015. Picture: New York PostSource:New York Post

Peter Schweizer, author of the book of the same name says: “The political leaders who enriched them and how they have been enriched affects the decisions they make. We should care who is putting money in the pockets of politicians. If you are a cabinet officer in the United States you should not have a foundation that is taking money f-rom foreign governments and foreign entities. We need to have those reforms or this is going to become widespread.”

Filmmaker Steven K. Bannon is the Executive Chairman of the politically conservative Breitbart news site and he’s clearly swallowed the Trump Kool-aid. He’s honest about wanting to take the Clintons down.

“Trump is a product of a seething populism and nationalism that is the driving political force,” he says animatedly.

“We were the first guys to give Trump an interview three years ago in May of 2013. The mainstream just laughed at him but I’m a filmmaker and I watch the audience. They were leaning into what Trump said when he talked about making America great again, getting jobs back and stopping immigration,” he says.

“I don’t like to prognosticate but I was the very first guy three years ago that said Trump will be the Republican nominee and was mocked and ridiculed.”

This time last year it seemed ludicrous to imagine Trump as the republican nominee. Yet here we are. Picture: Ted S. Warren/APSource:AP

Bannon is sipping his morning coffee on the sun-dappled patio of Cannes’ iconic Carlton Hotel, perched on the Mediterranean Sea whe-re the likes of George Clooney, Blake Lively, Justin Timberlake and an endless array of models are milling about.

“George Clooney, who is a moron, came here to Cannes and gave a press conference saying, ‘Under no circumstances will Trump ever be president. Hillary Clinton will be the next president.’ Well, we can’t wait to make George Clooney eat his words. He has a false patina of intellectualism and this is what a hypocrite he is; he talks all this trash about money and politics and global warming but lives up in Italy at the villa [on Lake Como] and flies around in a jet,” he says.

George Clooney with his wife Amal Clooney on the red carpet at Cannes earlier this month. Picture: Loic Venance/AFPSource:AFP

“Clooney had a US$350,000 dollar a plate dinner at his home in Bel Air for Hillary Clinton. [In fact, the highest-price ticket, $353,400, was for two people to sit at the event’s top table alongside Clinton and Clooney]. Then he said, ‘There is too much money in politics and I don’t really agree with the way the Clintons are raising this money but that is just the way the system is. I will continue to support it because I think she is wonderful.’”
 

Taking a decidedly no-holds-barred approach, Bannon says of the Clintons, “They are trailer trash. They are grifters.”

And on the age-old question, the subject of many a classic country music anthem, why did Hillary stand by her man? “Because she is possibly about to become the most powerful person in the world, and possibly the first female president of the most powerful nation in the history of the earth,” Bannon says.

Bill and Hillary campaigning together. Picture: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesSource:AFP

Though the documentary is largely seen as a tool for the Republicans during this historic election year, Clinton Cash has also proved to be an aid for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

“It’s a great weapon for Sanders. The polling shows Hillary Clinton’s biggest weakness is not her competence as Secretary of State, as a senator or her stand on women’s issues, it’s that people don’t trust her,” he says, leaning in.

“Particularly when it comes to money. Sixty-five per cent think she’s dishonest, but Bernie hasn’t used that and I think one of the reasons is quite simple: these people roll very hard. The Clintons play smash mouth,” he says. “They will come at you.”