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Elections may come and go, but the paid speeches will always be with us, as we were reminded during Clinton’s appearance at the Code Conference yesterday. The Q&A session is part of a series of public appearances Clinton has made since Trump’s inauguration for the dual purposes of keeping her brand alive and exonerating herself of responsibility for her disastrous campaign and loss. But in last night’s talk, discussion turned to Clinton’s decision to give exorbitantly priced speeches for various Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs, which became a major issue during the Democratic campaign. Yesterday at Code, Clinton trialled a brand new defense against critics of her speaking fees: they’re sexist. “Men got paid for speeches they made. I got paid for the speeches I made,” she said. “I thought it was unfairly used.” Clinton is correct that male policymakers have also hawked themselves on the public speaking circuit for eye-popping sums. But the idea that there was a sexist double standard at play when Clinton was criticized for doing the same is clearly absurd. The men Clinton is referring to also received vociferous criticism for their cashing in after leaving office.