Former President Bill Clinton told staffers at the Clinton Foundation if Hillary wins the presidency they will stop accepting foreign and corporate donations. From Fox News:
While Hillary Clinton stepped down from its board after launching her 2016 campaign, her husband and daughter have remained in leadership roles, leading to questions about the ability of the organization to continue its work should Clinton win the White House.Some of the group’s funding has come from foreign donations and political donors to the Clinton family. Money accepted from countries such as Saudi Arabia drew scrutiny from both Republicans and Democrats early in Clinton’s presidential bid.
The decision comes after Judicial Watch revealed emails that showed major donors asking then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for favors. In April 2009, Clinton Foundation official Doug Band sent an email to Clinton’s top aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin about a favor. He reminded them “it is important to take care of [Redacted].” Officials blacked out the name, but Abedin said “Personel has been sending him options.”
Clinton’s competitor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) blasted the foundation over their foreign donations while on the campaign trail:
“Do I have a problem when a sitting secretary of State and a foundation run by her husband collects many, many dollars from foreign governments — governments which are dictatorships?”Yeah, I do have a problem with that. Yeah, I do,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”When host Jake Tapper asked if he thought it was a conflict of interest, Sanders said, “I do.”
The Hill reported:
The Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit established by Bill Clinton to implement development programs in third-world countries, has received donations from countries including Saudi Arabia. The kingdom gave between $10 million and $25 million to the foundation between the time the foundation was created through 2014, according to Politifact, though it stopped giving when she was secretary of State.
Clinton likes to establish herself as the candidate for the LGBT community, but Saudi Arabia does not tolerate homosexuality or even cross-dressing. Penalties include death, imprisonment, fines, or flogging. The royal family gave their “virtue police” the ability to arrest anyone who violates Islam, including homosexuals.
On August 16, the editorial board at The Boston Globe wrote that the foundation should shut down if Hillary wins the presidency:
The inherent conflict of interest was obvious when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009. She promised to maintain a separation between her official work and the foundation, but recently released emails written by staffers during her State Department tenure make clear that the supposed partition was far from impregnable. That was bad enough at State; if the Clinton Foundation continues to cash checks from foreign governments and other individuals seeking to ingratiate themselves with a President Hillary Clinton, it would be unacceptable.Winding down the foundation, and transferring its assets to some other established charity, doesn’t have to hurt charitable efforts. If the foundation’s donors are truly motivated by altruism, and not by the lure of access to the Clintons, then surely they can find other ways to support the foundation’s goals. And in four or eight years, the Clinton family could always form a new foundationand reestablish their charitable efforts.
Hillary has not mentioned how the family will handle the foundation if she wins the election.
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