Trump: Clinton Has Been Bought
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Donald Trump is claiming Hillary Clinton has been bought following a report from The Associated Press that showed many donors who met with her while she was secretary of state gave money to the Clinton Foundation.
CBS2's Dick Brennan reported the Republican presidential nominee was on the attack in Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday.
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"She sold favors and access in exchange for cash," Trump said. "She sold it."
The AP reviewed Clinton's State Department schedule and found 85 of the 154 people who held a meeting or a phone call with her donated to the Clinton Foundation either personally or through their businesses or groups.
"Wait till you see, ultimately, what she did for all those people, wait till you see," Trump exclaimed. "These are not people who all go in and say, 'How do you feel?'"
The Clinton campaign responded saying the AP's data is flawed and omitted more than 1,700 meetings she took with world leaders.
The campaign insisted the foundation had no influence on her work at the State Department.
"The Clinton Foundation is a charity. It is a world-class philanthropy," said Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon.
Trump said Clinton's actions are criminal and he wants a special prosecutor in the case. Fallon said Trump is grasping at straws.
"It is an act of desperation on his campaign given the turmoil that we've seen from his campaign in recent weeks," said Fallon.
Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, both defended their foundation Wednesday night.
"We're trying to do good things," former President Clinton said. "If there's something wrong with creating jobs and saving lives, I don't know what it is. The people who gave the money knew exactly what they were doing."
Hillary Clinton called the report about her personal meetings "a lot of smoke and no fire."
But Trump loyalist Rudolph Giuliani disagrees.
"The scandal you are watching unfold is going to be like the Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s, and maybe bigger," Giuliani said. "it is going to be bigger than Watergate."
Meanwhile, despite repeated calls for mass deportations, Trump is now signaling he may make exceptions as it appears he may be looking for a way out of rounding up nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants.
"There certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people," Trump said.
However, he added during a rally in Tampa, "I'm going to institute a new ideological screening program to keep out people who do not share our values of love and respect."
A recent NBC News/SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll showed Clinton leading Trump nationally by 8 points – 50 to 42 percent.