Donna Brazile defends Hillary Clinton's meetings with Clinton Foundation donors
Democratic National Committee Interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile on Sunday defended Hillary Clinton’s meetings as secretary of state with Clinton Foundation donors.
Speaking to CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson, Brazile said that Republicans are acting hypocritically on the issue.
“When Republicans meet with their donors, with their supporters, their activists, they call it a meeting. When Democrats do that, they call it a conflict,” Brazile said, adding that one would meet with people like Bono “because they want to bring a matter to your attention.”
“That’s not ‘pay to play,’” she said. “It’s called that when Democrats do it. It’s not called that when Republicans do it.”
Brazile said she has been a “very, very strong supporter of the Clinton Foundation” which she said has helped poor, struggling communities, including areas of Africa suffering from HIV and Malaria.
She slammed the media for being focused on “internal gossip” rather than “the crime itself,” such as in the case of the cyberattack at the DNC.
“[The] media became obsessed with what was in the emails and not the crime” of a foreign country like Russia hacking into the committee.
Brazile’s comments come after the Associated Press published an analysis of Clinton’s schedules when she was secretary of state and found that at least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met with or had phone conversations scheduled with her donated to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton’s presidential campaign, however, said that the AP misrepresented and distorted the scope of her meetings because the story excluded thousands of meetings with public officials.
Asked why Clinton is not performing significantly better than Donald Trump in national polls, Brazile said that voters are still making up their minds.
“I’m not worried about the polls today because as you know, the polls today pretty much reflect the mood of the country,” she said. “A lot of voters are still undecided. They’re still making up their minds.”