Bill and Hillary Clinton were once masters of the “dark arts” of politics, making history and making their fortunes by running global philanthropic foundations. Their skill even had a name: “Clinton Blur”. Former President Bill Clinton has been out of office for a long time, but he's back at it again.
“The news for GAI is that Bill Clinton is back,” says Peter Schweitzer, author of the 2015 bestseller. clinton cash Exposed the financial fraud behind the Clinton Global Initiative. “Bill's back, he's mad, and he's mad.” myself! ”
Two weeks after Donald Trump's election, Bill Clinton published a new book. Citizen: My life after the White Houseit was not wide I noticed At the time, scattered throughout the book's various chapters are approximately 1,500 words attacking Peter Schweitzer's reporting by name, dating back to 2015.
Clinton's book makes several inaccurate claims about: clinton cash What is being reported and its role? New York Times, Washington Post, and ABC News confirmed that the book will reveal how the Clinton family used their charitable foundation to line their own pockets. About the latest episode of drill downMr. Schweitzer and co-host Eric Eggers dispute Ms. Clinton's claims.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (left) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in 2010 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Bill Clinton wrote that Schweitzer's 2015 book was “political propaganda aimed at helping elect far-right wolves in populist garb.” According to Schweitzer, this is completely false. The book's research began in 2013, when Hillary Clinton was still secretary of state under President Barack Obama, long before either she or Donald Trump announced their candidacy.
What piqued GAI's interest at the time, Schweitzer said, was the Clintons' own financial disclosure forms, which showed large sums of money flowing into the foundation from corrupt countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. It is said that it was required for high-ranking officials. The number sharply increased in 2009, when Hillary became Secretary of State.
“The facts are simple: The Clinton Foundation received $250 million in 2009,” Schweitzer says. This standard was maintained throughout her four years in office. After she left office, giving to the family foundation began to decline, with endowments totaling just $16 million in 2020, a 93% drop from the boom years.
Bill's memoir also attempts to spin that revelation. clinton cash American mining company uranium sold to Russia in a deal approved while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State and a key member of an interagency group that must approve sales of strategic assets to foreign powers. About One. Mr. Schweitzer's book showed that several of Mr. Clinton's cronies and big donors were enriched by the deal.
Clinton claims there was no scandal because Hillary didn't start the scandal personally Approve the transaction. In fact, the approval was handled by a State Department official with close ties to John Podesta, the Clinton administration operative who would become Hillary's campaign chair in 2016. Clinton is “blurring” here. clinton cash, While trying to distance Hillary from the decision, her foundation benefited from donations from investors grateful for the deal, including Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra. “It’s a difference without a difference,” Schweitzer says.
Bill also claims that Schweitzer's book “remarkably achieved its larger purpose.” new york times and washington post Fully aware of who the author was being paid and his past work as a right-wing propaganda activist, he worked with Fox on an “exclusive” deal to use the book as a “resource” for their campaign. Signed. ”
It's certainly an eye-opener, but new york times Although being treated as part of a “right-wing” conspiracy, the truth is that Schweitzer only provided them with advance copies of some of the research. They created their own stories that supported and deepened the findings contained in the manuscript. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joe Becker wrote a front-page exposé about Uranium One. times After confirming and supplementing what this book reveals.
“We call out the powerful, and it's satisfying to know that after nearly 10 years, Bill is still angry and won't let it go,” Schweitzer told Eggers. Ta.
Clinton's book never disputes the facts, Schweitzer said. They never denied, for example, that the foundation received nearly $150 million from Uranium One investors. A Russian bank with an interest in the deal paid Bill $500,000 for a single speech in Moscow the same month the deal was being formally reviewed.
Schweitzer recalls that only one person of note tried to prevent the incident from being exposed. clinton cash. It was a tough interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News, but he didn't dispute the facts and talked about his obvious conflict of interest, the fact that he himself is a large donor to the Clinton Foundation. not revealed to the audience. “Where are the smoke bombs?” Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked Schweitzer in an audio clip of the interview. “You have no evidence of a crime.”
Schweitzer replied, “It's not the author's responsibility to prove the crime, George.”
By the way, Stephanopoulos recently said, President Trump was forced to apologize He will also pay $15 million (plus legal fees) as a defamation settlement for comments he made about the president-elect on his show.
All this raises the question — Why now? Why does Bill Clinton want to expose the Clinton scandal again? Schweitzer believes it has something to do with the upcoming fight over the future direction of the Democratic Party.
The question for defeated Democrats, Schweitzer said, is whether they want to continue embracing the extreme progressivism “of AOC and Bernie Sanders,” or do they want to continue to embrace the extreme progressivism of “AOC and Bernie Sanders,” or build on their past success in projecting centrism to voters while slowing their performance. The question is whether he wants to revive Clintonism with the same approach he has taken. Left wing creep. “To bring back Clintonism, we have to bring back the Clintons,” Schweitzer said. Therefore, both men must make efforts to clarify the corruption allegations that have long been attached to them.
“Clintonism was really about triangulation and consensus building,” Schweitzer continues. When Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary in the 2016 nomination race, he made valid points about Hillary's inherently corporatist behavior.
Schweizer also noted that then-Vice President Joe Biden had a front-row seat to observe how Hillary and Bill were able to monetize their power during his time in office. They may have learned a lesson in starting their own family business, starting with a $1 billion deal in China with Hunter in 2013.
Bill Clinton admits in his book that there were “outbursts of anger” in the two years following Hillary's defeat in 2016. Eight years later, he tried to blame Schweitzer, or then-FBI Director James Comey, or even the president. new york times Because her loss indicates that perhaps he is heading in a different direction.
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