Ed Rendell: Nothing Improper In Clinton Meeting With Foundation Donors While At State Department
Philadelphia (CBS) - Responding to an Associated Press report that over 50 percent of the individuals that met with Hillary Clinton while she was serving as Secretary of State made donations to the Clinton Foundation, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell dismissed the idea that the Democratic nominee for president did anything wrong during her time at the department.
Rendell, during an interview with Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said that while the optics of the story are not helpful to Clinton, there doesn't seem to be much to the story.
"I think the only way that becomes a problem is if she did something for any of those donors that she shouldn't have done, that was against the interest of the United States...The question is not whether there were meetings, but whether, in fact, as a result of those meeting, as a result of those donations, anything untoward was done. That's what has to be determined...Does it look good? No. Absolutely not. They should've been more thoughtful about it. But is it a major problem? I don't think unless there's a connection it's a major problem."
He stated that there is nothing wrong with being available to donors and if something improper did go on, it would've come to light already.
"Access isn't the question. The question is, was anything done to favor people who donated that wasn't appropriate for the United States of America? My guess is: absolutely nothing. Just like Bernie Sanders. Bernie had the entire campaign to find out one thing that Hillary Clinton did for Goldman Sachs or one thing that she did for Bain Capital or whatever that was untoward and he couldn't do it."