Does anyone really think the absurd sums of money thrown at the Clinton Foundation were done with no intent to influence Hillary at the State Department? The American people aren't dumb. She was recently questioned about it on CNN (a network uber friendly to the Clintons).
I have no doubts she would have met with folks but to think the huge donations were being made with no impact on her decision making is laughable at best. To quote Bernie Sanders on Hillary Clinton accepting huge sums from Wall Street - Why would they make these huge donations without expecting some sort of quid pro quo? "I guess just for fun. They just want to throw it around."
On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC 360,” Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued that with the Clinton Foundation, “there’s a lot of smoke and there’s no fire.” And that recently announced changes to the Clinton Foundation’s practices that will be implemented if she’s elected are due to “unique circumstances” that didn’t exist during her tenure at the State Department.
Clinton was asked, “Why was it okay for the Clinton Foundation to accept foreign donations when you were secretary of state, but it wouldn’t be okay if you were president?
She answered, “Well, what we did when I was secretary of state, as I said, went above and beyond anything that was required, anything that any charitable organization has to do. Now, obviously, if I am president, there will be some unique circumstances, and that’s why the foundation has laid out additional, unprecedented –.”
Host Anderson Cooper then followed up, “But didn’t those unique circumstances exist when you were secretary of state?”
Hillary responded, “No, no. You know, look, Anderson, I know there’s a lot of smoke and there’s no fire. This AP report, put in it context, this excludes nearly 2,000 meetings I had with world leaders, plus countless other meetings with US government officials when I was secretary of state. It looked at a small portion of my time, and it drew the conclusion, and made the suggestion that my meetings with people like the great Elie Wiesel, or Melinda Gates, or the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus were somehow due to connections with the foundation, instead of their status as highly respected global leaders. That is absurd. These are people I was proud to meet with, who any secretary of state would have been proud to meet with, to hear about their work, and their insights.”
Clinton was asked, “Why was it okay for the Clinton Foundation to accept foreign donations when you were secretary of state, but it wouldn’t be okay if you were president?
She answered, “Well, what we did when I was secretary of state, as I said, went above and beyond anything that was required, anything that any charitable organization has to do. Now, obviously, if I am president, there will be some unique circumstances, and that’s why the foundation has laid out additional, unprecedented –.”
Host Anderson Cooper then followed up, “But didn’t those unique circumstances exist when you were secretary of state?”
Hillary responded, “No, no. You know, look, Anderson, I know there’s a lot of smoke and there’s no fire. This AP report, put in it context, this excludes nearly 2,000 meetings I had with world leaders, plus countless other meetings with US government officials when I was secretary of state. It looked at a small portion of my time, and it drew the conclusion, and made the suggestion that my meetings with people like the great Elie Wiesel, or Melinda Gates, or the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus were somehow due to connections with the foundation, instead of their status as highly respected global leaders. That is absurd. These are people I was proud to meet with, who any secretary of state would have been proud to meet with, to hear about their work, and their insights.”
I have no doubts she would have met with folks but to think the huge donations were being made with no impact on her decision making is laughable at best. To quote Bernie Sanders on Hillary Clinton accepting huge sums from Wall Street - Why would they make these huge donations without expecting some sort of quid pro quo? "I guess just for fun. They just want to throw it around."
