The controversy over the connection between then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation continues to hound her as she runs for president.
E-mails surfaced this month indicating some donors to the foundation asked for — and were granted — meetings with Secretary Clinton.
Donald Trump called it “pay for play” and says the Clinton Foundation ought to be shut down with a special prosecutor appointed to investigate.
There’s been no evidence, so far, to support the “pay for play” charge. Clinton dismissed the criticism, telling CNN “there’s a lot of smoke and no fire.”
An open letter on the foundation’s website from former president Bill Clinton outlines steps that would be taken to limit donations and separate himself and his wife from the foundation if Mrs. Clinton wins the election.
Large donors usually have loud voices when it comes to political campaigns. Is this corrupt practice or politics as usual?
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The Foundational Criticism of Hillary Clinton
Hacking the Election
Imagine. It’s the day after the election….the victor’s triumph rests on close results in five or six states, where the winner had a few thousand more votes. Assume also that each of these states used — at least partially — electronic voting. Assume then that the loser alleges that cyber-tampering stole the election.
Putin, Trump & Clinton
Television interviews of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton over the weekend created more controversy for both candidates on issues that have dogged them so far this campaign season.
In an interview with FOX News, Clinton said the FBI Director backed up her claims that she did not send any classified information over her private email server. The Washington Post’s fact-checker begs to disagree with the Democratic nominee.
Meantime Trump doubled down on an feud with the parents of an American war hero. Capt. Humayun Khan was killed in 2004 by a suicide car bomb in Iraq. He was awarded the Bronze Star for saving his unit and Iraqi civilians.
And Trump’s responses to questions about Russia and Ukraine just added to last week’s controversy about his suggestion that Russia try to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email to find the 33,000 emails that she deleted from her private server.
Add to the intrigue a new report detailing the connections between the Clinton Foundation and a U.S.-Russia cooperative effort to create an Silicon Valley-like “innovation city” in Russia while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
And there are just 99 days to go before Election Day.
Conventional Clinton Takes on Trump
Americans have been fed a steady diet of political rhetoric over the past two weeks, trying to convince them that two people they have known for decades — and generally do not like — should be their next president.
Hillary Clinton finished off this week’s Democratic National Convention with a speech in which she had to walk a fine line to mollify Bernie Sanders’ supporters while reaching out to independents and Republicans who are looking for change, but are wary of Donald Trump.
Polls conducted in the days ahead will show us how the Democrats’ message has been digested. Meantime, reviews and comparisons of the two conventions are coming in. And the acceptance speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton can be found below, a way to pass the 102 days still to come before Election Day.
Trump’s Unconventional Convention
Perhaps it’s by design that the 2016 Republican National Convention would not — could not — follow the cookie-cutter design of conventions of the recent past. After all, 17 candidates were at one time running for the party’s presidential nomination. And the most unconventional candidate of any — Donald Trump — came out on top.
Trump’s flair for grandeur, unpredictability and frank talk combined with fissures within the Republican party over the bitter primary election raised expectations for a raucous convention.
There has been little disappointment.
From Monday night’s controversy over Melania Trump’s speech to Tuesday’s mock trial of Hillary Clinton to Wednesday’s booing of Ted Cruz for refusing to endorse Donald Trump, this week’s conclave has met those expectations.
Trump now has to summon all of his natural charisma and impresario instincts to deliver an acceptance speech that can bring Republicans together and convince a large swath of undecided voters that he can be their next president of the United States.
Now, What Does Brexit Mean for U.S.?
Uncertainty.
That is what we are left with following Britain’s vote Thursday to leave the European Union.
Financial markets hate uncertainty. So, the precipitous drop in stock markets worldwide should not come as a surprise. Yet it is staggering to see the vote’s outcome resulting in two trillion dollars of lost equity. So far.
Britain voted for the uncertainty of change. The status quo was not working for them. Similar political sentiments are echoed in the United States, personified by the success, so far, of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The change Britain voted for will likely bring on other change. Expect Scotland and Northern Ireland to look for ways to stay in the E.U., which may mean leaving the United Kingdom.
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, questions whether voters understood the consequences. That sentiment seems to be borne out in the British blogosphere, where Google Trends says there was a 250-percent spike in searches for “What happens if we leave the EU?”
Result: uncertain.
Bernie Sanders: Here’s What We Want
“What does Bernie want?” Wrong question. The right question is what the 12 million Americans who voted for a political revolution want….They want real change in this country, they want it now and are prepared to take on the political cowardice and powerful special interests which have prevented that change from happening.
Trump & Clinton: It’s on, to November
“Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.”
“Trump would throw us back into recession.”
Those quotes from the presumptive presidential nominees came 24 hours apart.
As the fact-checkers busily scour the words from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for accuracy, the political pundits are parsing their words to determine which way the winds blow.
The polls show Clinton with her widest lead since mid-May while the latest campaign financial filings show Trump well behind in the fund-raising race.
And it’s only June.
Trump, the Judge and the Campaign
By the time House Speaker Paul Ryan finally backed Donald Trump on June 2, the polls showed Trump and Hillary Clinton in a virtual tie. Clinton was still fending off a Democratic primary challenge from Bernie Sanders while Trump was slowly uniting a fractured Republican Party once his final challengers dropped out in early May.
How things changed in just one week.
Trump has been pilloried by opponents and supporters for what has been called racist comments about a judge presiding over a lawsuit involving Trump University. Trump has said the judge, Gonzalo Curiel, could not be impartial because of “his Mexican heritage.”
Five days after his endorsement, Ryan had to distance himself from Trump’s comments, saying it is the “textbook definition of racist.” But Ryan has not withdrawn his endorsement of Trump.
Trump has tried to defuse the controversy, saying the comments were “misconstrued”, but several Republicans are calling on him to apologize and retract his comments. Democrats will continue their attacks on Trump as a racist.
Will Trump’s head start on unifying his party wither under the weight of the candidate’s own words?
The Great Race
She made it.
Finally.
Hillary Clinton has gone from First Lady to U.S. Senator to Secretary of State to, now, Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
It sets up a historic presidential election in November: the first woman nominated by a major political party versus a businessman, the first nominee since 1952 who has not held public office.
Both Clinton and Donald Trump have work to do to unite their respective parties behind their candidacies. Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, has yet to concede, although he has sounded more conciliatory.
Trump has more work to do, thanks to his comments about a federal judge of Mexican descent who is presiding over a lawsuit involving Trump University — comments that have been called racist by foes and supporters alike. One Republican senator seeking re-election retracted his endorsement of Trump. Pressure will build for others to do the same.
Election Day is five months away. By then, history may take a back seat to histrionics.
Clinton: Trump Foreign Policy Ideas “Dangerously Incoherent”
Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy speech was more of an evisceration of Donald Trump, using the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s own words to make the case that he is “temperamentally unfit” to be president.
Trump countered Thursday evening, telling an audience “My temperament is so much tougher, so much better than hers.”
Standing in front of 15 American flags, Clinton used her 35-minute speech to tout her experience and successes as Secretary of State while reminding the audience of Trump opinions and statements. She made a point of saying “America is an exceptional country” while criticizing Trump for his “Make America Great Again” since, in her words, “America is great, just like we’ve always been.”
Clinton still has unfinished business in her quest for the Democratic nomination. She and Bernie Sanders will face off in six primaries next Tuesday that should deliver the requisite number of delegates for Clinton, barring overwhelming victories for Sanders.
If Thursday’s speech is any indication, a Clinton-Trump presidential match-up will be no holds barred.
What Does Bernie Want?
It’s a long shot for Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. But he is still campaigning hard, vowing to take his candidacy to the convention in Philadelphia in July.
Sanders trails Hillary Clinton by 268 pledged delegates going into the final nine contests of the primary election season. Neither are likely to win the nomination with pledged delegates only.
Both candidates will need to make their case to the 712 so-called “superdelegates” that they are the better candidate to take on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Both need to have convincing victories in the final primaries, especially California.
With 475 pledged delegates at stake, California has the biggest delegate haul. Sanders has been campaigning in the state for more than a week. Clinton has changed her schedule and will add two more days of California campaigning before the June 7 primary. She also got a boost with an endorsement from California governor Jerry Brown.
Donald Trump is already on the attack against Hillary Clinton. Many Democrats worry Sanders is dividing the party when the delegate math doesn’t add up.
Hillary Clinton: Eyeing Trump While Sanders Tries to Close
Voters in Kentucky and Oregon get their chance Tuesday to choose a candidate to run for president of the United States. Donald Trump is the last Republican standing in what once was a 17-candidate field. And the Democrats still have Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders going at one another.
The delegate math is tilted heavily against Sanders. Democrats allocate pledged delegates proportionally to the popular primary vote. That means Sanders has to overwhelmingly win most, if not all the remaining 11 contests to overcome Clinton’s current 283 pledged delegate lead.
Then, there are the “superdelegates” — 712 elected officials and Democratic party leaders who are not bound to any candidate. Right now, Clinton has support from an overwhelming number of those superdelegates.
The Clinton conundrum: positioning herself to take on Trump without burning bridges to Sanders supporters.