First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC
Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why
they matter.
The Clinton Conundrum
The latest controversy over the Clinton
Foundation -- the allegation that special access was given to Foundation
donors when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state -- follows a
familiar pattern: The entire arrangement appears sloppy, careless, and
seedy. As New York magazine's Jonathan Chait writes,
"What [new emails] show is that people who donated to the foundation
believed they were owed favors by Clinton's staffers… [Former staffer
Doug] Band, for instance, called the crown prince of Bahrain, who
donated millions to the foundation, a 'good friend of ours.'" But
there's another familiar pattern to the discussion, especially regarding
the AP report
showing that Foundation donors met with Clinton when she was secretary
of state: This kind of behavior is standard operating procedure for any
politician. If you're a sitting congressman, senator, or governor --
raise your hand if you've never granted meetings with big donors (either
ones you've known before or after the donation). This is a practice
that happens ALL of the time in American politics. And as a result, none
of it is illegal or demands a special prosecutor. So two things can be
true at the same time: One, what the Clintons are doing can be sloppy,
careless and seedy. And two, they're not the only ones doing it.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
No comments:
Post a Comment