Bill Clinton: “I’m really proud” of Clinton Foundation work
RENO — Amid calls from Donald Trump to “shut it down,” former President Bill Clinton defended the Clinton Foundation on Wednesday, saying it helped create jobs and save lives.
“If there’s something wrong with creating jobs and saving lives, I don’t know what it is,” he said to reporters at an impromptu stop at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta. “The people who gave the money knew exactly what they were doing and I have nothing to say about it except I’m really proud, I’m proud of what they’ve done.”
The Clinton Foundation has come under renewed scrutiny as newly released e-mails revealed how major donors to the foundation maintained access to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state. The State Department, Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic nominee herself have insisted that donors to the family’s charity did not receive special treatment.
In a meeting with his staff last week, Bill Clinton outlined several operational changes that would be made, should his wife be elected.
“We’re going to transition all these responsibilities that would require foreign or corporate donations, which I won’t accept, and I won’t raise money for the foundation if she wins,” he said in Atlanta. “But we have to do it in a way where no one loses their jobs, no one loses their income, and no one loses their life.”
Trump and his allies have seized on the controversy — in particular, a schedule analysis published Tuesday by the Associated Press that showed how often Clinton met with donors to the Clinton Foundation while at the State Department — in an effort to discredit his rival. Trump has repeatedly called for a special prosecutor.
“She’s basically selling access to the State Department,” he said in an interview Wednesday with a Tampa television station. “There’s never been anything like this in our country’s history. Absolutely, there should be a special prosecutor.”
Bill Clinton was in Atlanta on Wednesday for a fundraiser, while Hillary Clinton was raising money for her campaign in California. She has largely avoided questions about the Clinton Foundation, and a new trove of her e-mails uncovered by the FBI, while shuttling between events in Los Angeles, Laguna Beach and the Bay Area.
“I’m really proud of what we did,” Bill Clinton said, “and nothing that has been said in the last few days has done anything to dampen it.”