MSNBC host Rachel Maddow told Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that it’s “not unreasonable to suspect that people may give donations to the Clinton Foundation hoping that they will favorably influence your opinion” and wondered if she will divorce herself from the Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Foundation during an interview on Wednesday.
Maddow asked if there was an “ethical case” to wind down the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, because while the foundation does “good works” “it is not unreasonable to suspect that people may give donations to the Clinton Foundation hoping that they will favorably influence your opinion toward them as a presidential candidate, or eventually as president, if you’re elected. Is there an ethical concern there that should be, essentially, a split between you and your family, and this foundation, that has done good work, but now you’re in a different position with regard to potential donors?”
Hillary answered, “I think that the work that it’s done has been extraordinary, and I give the credit to my husband and my daughter, because I haven’t been involved for that long. And when I look at what they’ve accomplished, and what they’ve been able to amplify, in terms of saving lives by getting the price of drugs for HIV/AIDS down in sub-Sarahan Africa, it’s quite astonishing. And I would hate to lose that creativity, that imagination, that extraordinary flexibility, so I think the answer is transparency. And there is no doubt that there will be complete transparency about donations. But when you have hundreds of thousands of people who are donating, as they do, I think that the best answer for that is what we have been doing for the last several years, and that is to be transparent about it ,and let voters and others make their judgment.”
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