Hillary Clinton Had A Surprise Interview With Big Republican Cisco CEO John Chambers

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Hillary Clinton

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showed up as a surprise guest at Cisco's huge internal sales conference that took place this week.

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She was interviewed on stage by CEO John Chambers.

That's a politically interesting combination. Chambers is a Republican who endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign. But that same year, he also said he was a fan of Hillary's hubby, Bill. He told Arik Hesseldahl at AllThingsD that year:

"I'm a strong Republican, but I think President Clinton got it right with business and knocked the ball out of the park."

Clinton's speech and interview was not taped, a source close to the company told us. So we can't listen on the conversation now that it's over. Cisco would not even officially confirm her visit.

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But it was all over Twitter.

That same day, Clinton also gave an official, public appearance in the Valley. She spoke at the OpenSDx Summit sponsored by startup Nexenta Systems. At that appearance she was asked about one of Chambers' favorite political subjects: bringing corporate offshore money back to the U.S. (known as repatriation).

At that conference she was asked about a plan floated by Chambers and others to create an infrastructure bank where companies can invest offshore cash, reports The Wall Street Journal's Rachael King.

Clinton said she hasn't looked into that idea but noted, "It doesn't do our economy any good to have this money parked somewhere else in the world."

She's been lately talking to a lot of tech companies. In July she visited Google, Facebook, and Twitter, she tweeted.

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Still, if she runs for president and gets John Chambers' endorsement, that would be something of a coupe.

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