For more details about Hillary Clinton's pay-to-play scandal, see the Boston Globe’s
editorial below as well as RNC Research’s roundup of the criticism from
newspapers across the country:
RNC
Research: Editorials Hammer Clinton Over
Pay-To-Play Scheme
This
research shows that, as editorial pages across the country slam the conflicts
of interest and pay-to-play controversies involving the Clinton Foundation and
Hillary Clinton’s State Department, the liberal Boston Globe is going one step
further.
The
Boston Globe’s editorial board is calling for a moratorium on donations to the foundation
altogether and that it be shut down in the event she wins.
Wonder
if the Clinton campaign agrees?
Here
is a summary of the Boston Globe’s
editorial that is shown further below.
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 to a President Hillary
Clinton, it would be unacceptable.
The
Clintons should move now to end donations to the foundation, and make plans to
shut it down in November. Even if they’ve done nothing illegal, the foundation
will always look too much like a conflict of interest for comfort.
______________________
Clinton
Foundation Should Stop Accepting Funds
Boston
Globe
Editorial
Board
August
16, 2016
ALTHOUGH
THE CHARITY founded by former President Bill Clinton has done admirable work
over the last 15 years, the Clinton Foundation is also now clearly a liability
for Hillary Clinton as she seeks the presidency in 2016. The once-and-maybe-future
first family will have plenty to keep them busy next year if Hillary Clinton
defeats Donald Trump in November. The foundation should remove a political —
and actual — distraction and stop accepting funding. If Clinton is elected, the
foundation should be shut down.
Since
its founding, the foundation has supported relief in Haiti, global health, and
other good causes. It also provided paychecks for some members of the Clinton
political team, like Cheryl Mills, Douglas Band, and Huma Abedin, and afforded
the former president a platform and travel budget. Many of the foundation’s
donations come from overseas, including from foreign governments with troubling
human rights records.
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 to 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 foundation and
reestablish their charitable efforts.
But
as long as either of the Clintons are in public office, or actively seeking it,
they should not operate a charity, too. The Clintons themselves seem to realize
that; “There’ll clearly be some changes in what the Clinton Foundation does and
how we do it,” Bill Clinton said in June; “And we’ll just have to cross that
bridge when we come to it.” Why wait? The Clintons should move now to end
donations to the foundation, and make plans to shut it down in November. Even
if they’ve done nothing illegal, the foundation will always look too much like
a conflict of interest for comfort.
