60 Minutes Is Featuring Raimondo, Critics Worry Show Will Ignore Her Pension Policies
GoLocalProv News Team
60 Minutes Is Featuring Raimondo, Critics Worry Show Will Ignore Her Pension Policies
The interview at the Rhode Island State House on Wednesday was conducted by 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl.
On Friday, the group "Advocates for COLA Restoration and Pension Reform" posted the following to their Facebook page:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"Gina Raimondo filmed a '60 Minutes' segment at the State House. The producers may be interested in hearing the other side to the story."
Raimondo has, in recent months, become the darling of the national media. In August, GoLocal wrote about Raimondo's emergence. "Former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo is headed to China on a high-profile trip -- and is being watched across the globe.
She was the top story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. “Everyone Wants to Talk to Gina Raimondo – Even China,” was the WSJ headline.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, “Gina Raimondo is seizing her moment. The commerce secretary is heading to China this weekend for a four-day trip that will test her policy-making and diplomatic skills as well as her vision for what the Commerce Department can accomplish. A successful trip could help any ambitions Raimondo holds to advance in U.S. politics.”
Columnist Froma Harrop wrote in recent weeks that President Joe Biden should replace Vice President Kamala Harris with Raimondo.
"Democrats can allay their own concerns by pairing Biden with a very strong running mate, in effect creating a co-presidency. That would require replacing Vice President Kamala Harris. The process could be messy, but it's necessary. Harris is most unpopular. Several names have come up with one an obvious winner. That would be Gina Raimondo, Biden's super-empowered secretary of Commerce," wrote Harrop.
The group and others, including top Wall Street whistleblower Ted Siedle, have been highly critical of the pension reform program Raimondo implemented as Rhode Island General Treasurer.
Siedle, who has for the past decade consistently raised questions about Raimondo’s pension strategy, tells GoLocal that he has not been contacted by 60 Minutes.
He has outlined that his research found that the dollars saved by the cuts to state employees were shifted to fee payments to Wall Street hedge funds.
READ: RI Public Pension Reform - Wall Street’s License to Steal
Siedle is one of the most successful Wall Street whistleblowers, having secured more than $75 million in federal payments.
He was also featured in a PBS Frontline episode, “The Pension Gamble.”
“Prior to Raimondo’s costly hedge fund gamble, disclosed pension expenses amounted to approximately $11 million annually. As I noted in my 2013 report, as a result of loading up on hedge funds, the pension’s total investment expenses 'may already, or in the near future, amount to a staggering almost $100 million annually— an amount far in excess of the $5 million cost of conservatively indexing or passively managing the Fund’s assets.' So, under Raimondo, investment fees paid to her pals on Wall Street grew a staggering 10-fold,” he wrote in a column published in GoLocal.
When told that 60 Minutes was working on a feature segment, Siedle told GoLocal, “It was a Jesuit priest who told me on a bus from Springfield to Boston, as I was going back to law school, that there are people who have a reputation and credentials beyond their capabilities — that is Gina in a nutshell.”
“She’s clearly a good student, but everything she’s done, from money management as a so-called VC, and her work at the pension fund — was horrible, and as far as I can see, she doesn’t have any other constituent than Wall Street," added Siedle.
GoLocal reached out to 60 Minutes producers to ask if they were planning to speak with critics of Raimondo's policies, but they did not respond to a request for comment.