Peter Schweizer, author of the immediate best-seller “Clinton Cash\’, and a man who was grilled by George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC News\’s “This Week” program, has written a piece for USA Today, in which he takes us well beyond the now-famous (infamous?) $75,000 of contributions Mr. Stephanopoulos has contributed to The Clinton Foundation.
It is must-reading, especially for the benighted folks who think that Stephanopoulos\’s involvement in this foundation – which looks dirtier and more Clinton-serving rather than charitable by the day – begins and ends at three $25,000 checks.
An excerpt:
When Stephanopoulos invited me on his Sunday program, I knew that he had worked as a top adviser and campaign manager to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, but I didn\’t know about his donations or his other ties to the foundation founded and overseen by the former president and his wife, potential future president Hillary Clinton.
If Stephanopoulos had disclosed his donations to the very foundation I was there to talk about, perhaps it would have put the aggressive posture of his interview with me in context.
But he didn\’t.
For example, in his on air apology for this ethical mess, Stephanopoulos did not disclose that in 2006 he was a featured attendee and panel moderator at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)….
…in 2007, he was a featured attendee at the CGI annual meeting,…
…he was a 2008 panelist at the CGI annual meeting which, once again, featured individuals I report on in the book, such as billionaire Clinton Foundation foreign donor Denis O\’Brien…
…in 2009, he served as a panel moderator at CGI\’s annual meeting…
…2010 and 2011, he was an official CGI member….
…in 2013 and 2014, he and Chelsea Clinton served as CGI contest judges for awards, in part, underwritten by Laureate International Universities – a for-profit education company I report on in the book. Bill Clinton was on its payroll until his recent resignation.
Can anyone explain to me, with a straight face, how George Stephanopoulos can be trotted out by ABC News and referred to as a member of its news staff, rather than a partisan operative of Democrats in general and the Clintons in particular?
And can anyone explain to me, with a straight face, how the numerous other media venues which contributed to the Bill and Hillary Self-aggrandizement Center Foundation can be seen as any less partisan?
There are countless charitable foundations that could have been given the contributions instead of Bill and Hillary\’s. But it was the Clintons\’, with its minuscule 15% rate of money actually used for charitable ventures, which got them.
The Clintons and their people will try to laugh this off and assure us it isn\’t anything, as they have done with scandal after scandal in the past. And who is to say they won\’t be successful….given that so many in media qualify for the “and their people” part of this equation?
There are few people with the courage of Peter Schweizer, who will take the hits – the huge hits to go after this corrupt pair. Thank you, Mr. Schweizer, for being one of them.
I want nothing more or less than the truth. And you don\’t get truth without all sides of the story being told just as loudly.
As for George Stephanopoulos? ABC News says he will stay as host of “This Week”; that his apology is quite enough, thank you.
It isn\’t.
