It was revealed yesterday that more than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money to the Clinton Foundation, The Associated Press reported.
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The current “Pay to Play” scandal involving special access to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for those who contributed to the Clinton Foundation goes beyond perception into a very real realm.
“At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its worldwide programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press”. “At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million”.
The Democratic nominee’s team argued that the story “relies on utterly flawed data”. Band and Huma Abedin, Hillary’s traveling Chief of Staff and Vice Chairman of her 2016 campaign, often communicated with each othe on requests made through the foundation for meetings with Hillary or other access.
“It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton’s basis for meeting with these individuals”, spokesman Brian Fallon said.
The report also documented several instances where Clinton acted or spoke on behalf of those foundation donors to further their personal and philanthropic interests.
“Melinda Gates is a world-renowned philanthropist whose foundation works to address global health crises and eradicate disease in the developing world”, Fallon said. Trust us that donations to the Clinton Foundation were totally isolated from Clinton’s official business at State. President Obama, who was certainly lacking in preparedness made that assertion during the Democrat National convention.
“It is a total embarrassment if our secretary of state can be bought or bribed or sold”, he told a rally in Austin, Texas after a damaging Associated Press report raised questions about whether donors to the Clinton Foundation paid cash for access to America’s top diplomat.
“Hillary Clinton is in a pretty strong spot right now in the campaign given the repeated missteps by Trump and quite frankly if I’m her it may not be a bad thing to let Donald Trump be the only candidate making news on any given day”, said GOP strategist Ryan Williams, a veteran of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump fiercely criticised the links between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department on Tuesday night, saying Hillary Clinton “is desperate to cover up her crimes and she has been unsuccessful”.
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USA Today described this proposal as plan “laughable and laudable”.
