CNN has gone from refusing to ask Hillary Clinton a direct question about the millions of dollars that flowed from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State — as detailed in Breitbart Senior Editor at Large Peter Schweizer’s book Clinton Cash — to attacking Schweizer and disparaging the book’s research without naming sources.
It’s been 14 months since New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Jo Becker’s explosive article, “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal,” was published. In that time, not only has CNN failed to ask Hillary Clinton about her role in the State Department’s approval of the transfer of 20% of U.S. uranium to the Russian government while nine investors in the deal donated $145 million to the Clinton Foundation, the cable news network has also trotted out its senior political analyst and former Counselor to Bill Clinton David Gergen to attack Clinton Cash.
“I was really surprised he learned as heavily as he did upon the Schweizer book, Clinton Cash—that book has been basically discredited,” Gergen said Wednesday on CNN, responding to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s speech on Hillary Clinton. “Other news organizations have looked at [the book] and said [Schweizer] has no evidence, he has no evidence that shows money given by donors to the Clinton Foundation then resulted in actions by the State Department that favored those donors.”
On Thursday, Breitbart News reached out to CNN’s senior media correspondent and host of Reliable Sources Brian Stelter and asked him if his network has asked or plans to ask Hillary Clinton about the millions in Clinton Foundation donations that came as her State Department approved the transfer of 20% of U.S. uranium to the Russian government or about her brother Tony Rodham being granted a rare “gold exploitation permit” in Haiti as then Secretary Clinton dispersed billions of U.S. relief dollars.
We also would like to know what sources David Gergen used as the basis for his claim that the meticulously researched key details put forth in Clinton Cash are, as he put it, “basically discredited.”
Indeed, as Breitbart News has reported ad nauseam, mainstream media publications — The New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, Politico, etc. (not exactly a cabal of conservative press) — have spent the last year confirming the accounts found in Clinton Cash as accurate.
On Wednesday, Breitbart’s Washington Politics Editor Matthew Boyle outlined the overwhelming mainstream media coverage and confirmation of Clinton Cash thusly:
The New Yorker confirmed that Bill Clinton received half a million dollars for a speech that was paid for by “a Russian investment bank that had ties to the Kremlin” while the Uranium One deal was ongoing.
The Wall Street Journal confirmed details about donations from Canadian mining executive Stephen Dattels.
The New York Times has also confirmed more on the Uranium One deal, while Bloomberg has confirmed the details about the Laureate Education, Inc., area of the scandal.
The Washington Post also confirmed details about how much of the Clintons’ wealth comes from the foundation, while CBS News confirmed details about Schweizer’s deep dive on Jeb Bush—the former Florida governor.
ABC News confirmed the paid speeches revelations, and those connections to Hillary Clinton’s work as Secretary of State.
Schweizer responded to Gergen’s attacks and called out CNN and NBC for failing to ask Hillary Clinton about this ongoing scandal.
“I did two chapters in the book on this Russia uranium deal Donald Trump talked about in his speech. The New York Times actually took our reporting and did a 4,000 word front-page piece confirming all of it,” Schweizer said Thursday on Fox Business News.
“You’re talking about $145 million from shareholders in a very small Canadian uranium company that needed Hillary Clinton’s State Department to approve the sale of their company to the Russian government. What the Clintons want to say is there was just this spontaneous outpouring of benevolent donations by these shareholders and had no effect on her. My point is, look, we would like to find out what kind of communication might have taken place,” Schweizer added. “She deleted her dozen emails. But the point is, this needs to be investigated, and I’m really frankly shocked that a lot of news outlets — I would name them, CNN, NBC for example — are not interested in pursuing the story. This story came out again, front-page New York Times a year ago, it was in the book. Hillary Clinton has been on those networks numerous times, and she was not asked one single question about this transaction. An amazing lack of curiosity.”
When will Brian Stelter or anyone at CNN ask Hillary Clinton a direct question about The Washington Post’s reporting of the details about the Haitian gold mine scandal that involved Hillary Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham?
Last month Breitbart asked CNN anchor Jake Tapper why he has interviewed Hillary Clinton on at least four separate occasions since she announced her White House bid last June, but has yet to ask the former Secretary of State a single question concerning the alarming allegations laid out in Clinton Cash.
If it is beyond the capability of CNN’s staff of journalists and reporters to produce pointed questions for this line of inquiry, Breitbart News has already rounded up nearly two dozen on their behalf from the pages of the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and the Associated Press, among many others.
Stelter has yet to respond to Breitbart News’ inquiry.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson