Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event at Truckee Meadows Community College, in Reno, Nev., Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016.
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The steady drip, drip drip about Hillary Clinton’s too-cozy relationships with big-time donors to the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state continued unabated this week.
Clinton’s campaign said the AP analysis was flawed because it did not include in its calculations meetings with foreign diplomats or USA government officials, and the meetings AP examined covered only the first half of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who got face time with the secretary had donated to the foundation, according to State Department calendars released so far to the AP.
No one is alleging that the Clinton Foundation didn’t (and doesn’t) do enormous amounts of good around the world.
Clinton leads Trump in national and state polls, leaving many of her aides and supporters to conclude that addressing the issue isn’t worth the risk to her electoral standing. “It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton’s basis for meeting with these individuals”.
Nevertheless, the AP’s tweet allowed Donald Trump to stand on stage at a campaign rally and declare that “fifty percent of people who saw [Clinton] had to make a contribution to the Clinton Foundation”. They allege donors to the family charity got special attention from the State Department when she ran it.
Her defenders: USA law says perjury requires a wilful intent to hide.
Trump has called for the foundation to shut down immediately and for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate for possible criminal violations. “It would be a dereliction of duty by President Obama and his Justice Department if they fail to act on these startling new facts right now”.
Clinton said it’s a “fair question” to ask why the Clinton Foundation doesn’t just turn all of its work over to another major philanthropic organization with global reach, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It does. But what the Clinton Foundation does with the money it receives isn’t the point here. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is greeted by S. Daniel Abraham at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. More than half the people outside the government who met wit.
Innocent charitable work or nefarious influence-peddling?
Her defenders: Not even her defenders argue that she told the complete story from the start.
Hillary Clinton said Friday she was certain no revelations from emails or foreign entities’ ties to her husband’s charitable foundation will derail her bid for the United States presidency. They claim the AP’s analysis is flawed because they only looked at the first half of her time in office.
In view of recent, and escalating attacks, former President Bill Clinton said on Monday he and his wife will cease to be associated with the foundation if she is elected president.
Former President Bill Clinton announced last week that if Hillary Clinton is elected president, the Clinton Foundation would no longer accept foreign and corporate donations, he would step down from its board and he no longer would raise money for the organization.
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The relationship between Clinton and the Clinton Foundation has been under scrutiny after newly released emails showed top foundation donors requesting meetings or favors from her while she was secretary of state. The Clintons have defended their private foundation, citing vast charitable work when it comes to AIDS and global warming, in particular.
