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Bill Clinton: Some Foundation Donors Probably Influenced State Dept

Cortney O'Brien
Cortney O'Brien  |  September 20, 2016 9:00 AM
Democrats were on to something when they lamented that Bill Clinton has not exactly been the the party's biggest helper this election. Whether it's publicly feuding with Black Lives Matter or falling asleep during his wife's speech at the Democratic National Convention, the former president has made more unfortunate headlines for the campaign he's supposed to be championing.

Last week, Clinton made his latest blunder by claiming his wife only had the flu, when we all knew she had a serious case of pneumonia.

On Sunday, he did it again, stoking the fire of another Clinton scandal that his wife should want to avoid. NPR asked him if it's true some Clinton Foundation donors were given special access to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Instead of deferring an answer or denying it, he offered a glimpse of honesty with a "maybe."

"Maybe some of them gave money for that reason [to gain influence], but most of them gave it because they liked what we were doing," he said.

Yet, he said he was surprised to hear the news because the donors in question could have been granted meetings with Clinton on their own.

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"Well, since we had more 300,000 donors, it would be unusual if nobody did," Clinton said when asked if some of the donors might have been trying to ingratiate themselves with the Clintons. But he added, "The names I saw in the paper, none of them surprised me and all of them could have gotten their own meeting with Hillary."

Thanks to all of the scandals provided by the foundation, Clinton announced that he will be stepping down

from his role on the foundation board if Hillary is elected in November. The foundation will also stop accepting foreign donations.

To repeat - only if Hillary wins.