There those dastardly Republicans go again with their insistence that the Clinton Foundation accepting millions of dollars from foreign governments is some kind of issue for Hillary in 2016.
That’s at least according to the spin of a CNN story headlined “GOP seeks to make Clinton Foundation a 2016 headache.”
Because apparently this is a non-issue that only Republicans care about.
This kind of bias has been a complaint of conservatives for years, when major news outlets report an unfavorable story about Democrats from the lens that Republicans care about it, not that the story itself has any merit.
Perhaps CNN reporter Alexandra Jaffe didn’t come up with the title, but the article’s lead suggests that “Clinton’s allies are insisting controversial donations to her eponymous foundation won’t be an issue for her probable presidential bid” and that it’s Republicans who are trying to make the donations an issue.
Jaffe quotes Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — a long time Clinton supporter who helped Bill and Hillary secure a mortgage on a New York mansion after leaving the White House so the former first lady could run for senate.
“If the biggest attack on Hillary’s going to be that she raised too much money for her charity, okay, I’ll take that,” McAuliffe said. “No one’s alleging anything beyond that she raised money and people gave her money and foreign governments gave her money. At the end of the day, that’s fine. It went to a charity. It helped a lot of people.”
That’s right, nothing to see here folks, just somebody accepting money from foreign governments with frosty relations with the U.S. as she prepares for a White House run.
At least CNN points out that the foreign donations ramped up after Hillary left the State Department, although they didn’t also mention that the Foundation said it would reconsider such donations if Clinton does run for president.
But the Clintons’ foreign money is not only irking Republicans.
Former Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called the donations “awkward at best” and “concerning” during an appearance on “Meet the Press.”
And several Democratic operatives around the country also expressed dismay with the donations.
Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant, told the Wall Street Journal that if he were advising Hillary, “the advice would be that she should be the one who directs the foundation not to’’ accept donations from foreign governments — and to take that step “yesterday.”
Emily Jacobs, a Democratic county chairwoman in New Hampshire, said that Hillary needs to realize that, as a Democrat, “that is not something we stand for; that is nothing we believe in. … It’s not ethical.”
Kurt Meyer, a Democratic county chairman in Iowa said that the contributions appear to be a “curry-favor effort to get an advantageous seat on the bus with the next president of the United States,” which “scares” him.
And it’s not just card-carrying Democrats who oppose the donations. The New York Times editorial board, which can hardly be described as right-leaning, wrote that the foundation needed to “reassure the public that the foundation will not become a vehicle for insiders’ favoritism, should [Hillary] run for and win the White House.” The paper also said that “Restoring the restrictions on foreign donors would be a good way to make this point.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also published an editorial suggesting the foundation return the foreign donations. The Nashua Telegraph and the Raleigh News & Observer published similar editorials about how the foreign donations look bad for Hillary.
To be fair, CNN did host a discussion about the foundation’s fundraising last week, in which National Journal editor Ron Fournier called the donations “sleazy.”
But judging from how the networks, including CNN, covered comments from former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani versus the Clinton Foundation donations, the bias isn’t hard to find.
Sure, vocal Clinton supporter Terry McAuliffe believes this is a non-issue, but Republicans aren’t the only ones who think otherwise.
