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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The Clinton Foundation Was a Laundromat for Cash: If You Wanted to Talk to Hillary as SecState, You Had to Pay

I love it.I wonder when I hear Rush, how much the liberals think what a thorn in the Ass he is

RUSH: I did a test discussion on this with Mr. Snerdley before the program started.  Sometimes I do that.  You know, people test-market products.  I sometimes test-market topics. 
Mr. Snerdley came in at the appointed time to do some things, around 30 minutes before the program begins, so I hit him with a question.  I said, "Mr. Snerdley, look at the Clintons. That's the other big story is that half the people Hillary met with paid her for the privilege.  Half of the people, while she's secretary of state, half the people, if not more, paid her, paid the Clinton Foundation tens of millions of dollars." 
In fact, if you wanted to talk to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, the odds are you had to signal that you were willing to pay her foundation something.  And people, you know, the AP, it's a blockbuster story.  The Clinton camp is trying to say they cherry-picked a bunch of stuff.  "It's not anything like it looks.  This is crazy.  Mrs. Clinton was too busy as secretary of state to be doing all this kind of stuff.  This is an outrageous story."  It may be the first news story in a couple years that the Clintons think is unfair to them.  We have to deal with multiple stories every day that we think are unfair to us or is unfair to us. 
But the question, Michael Goodwin at the New York Post had a column on Sunday about the collapse of journalism.  And he's back today, and he's got a question:  Why do all this?  Here's the pattern, or the timeline.  Hillary Clinton runs for president 2008, loses.  Really humiliated.  I mean, it was hers.  That was to be her coronation.  The Democrats had promised her that and they ended up throwing her overboard or under the bus, whichever is more appealing to you in your imagination, or Barack Hussein O. 
So Hillary says, "Okay, I'm gonna do this again, I'm gonna run for president again," and the odds are the soonest she's gonna be able to do that is 2016, this year.  So what does she do?  She becomes secretary of state in the Obama administration for the first term, quits, writes books, does speeches, gets rich to set herself up for her presidential run. 
Now, doing all of that, they set up the Clinton Family Foundation, they had the Clinton Global Initiative, and she sets up the private email server, and all of this stuff that is inarguably scandal ridden, and much of it is inarguably illegal.  The question, why do it?  The question is, what is there that we still don't know about this?  Because there has to be something we don't know yet.  It may not be easy and provable to say that whatever's gone on is criminal, but, boy, does it get close to the edge, and it clearly is in violation of ethics. 
So she sets up the server with her private email account, and you have to figure she knows this is going to get discovered.  Then we learn what's been going on when she was secretary of state.  Forget Benghazi.  I mean, we add this to all that.  She wasn't doing anything but collecting money.  If you wanted to meet with Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, you had to pay for it, and a lot of people did.  A lot of people paid $32 million, $10 million, $15 million, one million, $750,000, you had to pay her in order to get a meeting with her to discuss diplomacy. 
If you're a world leader, if you're foreign government, you had to pay her, the odds are.  Not everybody, but it's an inordinate number of people.  Over half of her meetings that she took, and this does not include, by the way, meetings with 16 diplomats from other countries.  This is strictly individuals.  So they question, okay, why?  You have to know that's gonna get learned. You know this is gonna come out. At some point it's gonna get learned that you've got a pay-for-play operation going.  You've got your private email server. 
You can get rich anyway, legally.  All you gotta do is give speeches, write books, huge advances, and you can get plenty rich, you can get far richer than you were when you left the White House.  Yet they did this.  They were right up to the edge and they maybe crossed the line a number of times ethically and perhaps even legally.  These are the people that monetized to Lincoln bedroom, for crying out loud.  They sold access to the Lincoln bedroom.  If you wanted to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom you had to donate to their reelection campaign back in the nineties. 
So the question is, why?  Why risk it all doing all of this?  It can't just be to get rich, 'cause they could have done that without doing this.  They might not have gotten as rich, but why do this?  And the theory is there's still something out there. There's still something, there's an answer to that question that they don't want us to know that could be devastating.  I have to take a break.  So, anyway, Mr. Snerdley took a stab at answering this.  It made me think I wasn't asking the question in the right way.  So I'm gonna keep at this along with everything else we have.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, back to this blockbuster AP story, which the nub of this is the following.  Many donors to Clinton Foundation met with her at state. 
"More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money -- either personally or through companies or groups -- to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.
"At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million."
This is the very definition of pay-to-play.  And for all of those people out there saying, "Hey, wait, wait, this is just access.  This is not favors."  As I said yesterday, the access is the favor.  You pay to get Mrs. Clinton on the phone.  You pay to get a meeting with Mrs. Clinton.  That's the favor.  Then after you've paid you get the meeting and you explain why you gave the money. 
And, by the way, there's another side of this, too, that nobody's talking about.  And I, El Rushbo, will bring it up.  Who thinks this is only one way?  Okay, so you have sleazebag number one who calls Huma Abedin Weiner and says, "I need to talk with Mrs. Clinton."  Huma Abedin Weiner says, "Well, here, we can show you how this works." 
When you wanted to give Mrs. Clinton money, when you wanted to talk to her, you would call the State Department, you'd call the number and you'd get an answering machine, a voice mail that would send you in various direction.  Here's the process.  This is what happens.  This is how it started. 
(playing of spoof.) 
RUSH:  Okay.  So that's what happens.  You call in and you enter the amounts and so forth.  And what would happen next is Huma Abedin Weiner or Cheryl Mills would get hold of somebody over at Hillary's office and say, "Sleazebag 1 here from some Middle East potentate is interested in giving you $20 million and wants to speak to you."  Hillary takes the call. 
Now, everybody thinks that the guy giving the $20 million is expecting something and is gonna get it, the pay-to-play.  He gives the $20 million, goes to the foundation, Hillary either as secretary of state or on the come as president, is -- I mean look, everybody knows what's going on here.  Because it's very simple.  If it ever became known that Hillary would not meet with or do favors to donors, the money would dry up.  It's just that simple.  And everybody knew.  You didn't have to send out memos. 
The Clinton Family Foundation didn't have to advertise.  They didn't have to send out email blasts or any of that.  It just was known that you could buy Hillary Clinton, that you could buy Bill Clinton, and buying Bill Clinton would help you buy Hillary.  It was well known.  No advertisement necessary.  Donors to Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea received quo for their quid.  And if they didn't, game over.  If Hillary didn't pay back somehow, if that $20 million just sat there and nothing happened as a result, you think it'd keep coming in? 
Everybody knew.  Everybody out there who wanted to buy access knew that they could.  This is something that, look, it seems obvious, but not a lot of people are talking about it.  Ask yourself this.  How did everybody who donated -- and we're talking here over half of 'em, how did they know to do it?  How did they know they could?  How did they know the Clinton concierge service was available?  How does sleazebag potentate number 1 here know that he can reach Hillary Clinton by giving to her foundation?  They don't advertise it.  They don't send out email blasts. 
So how did all of these people, again, as the AP says, just to give you the exact words, more than half the people outside government who met with Hillary Clinton while secretary of state gave money.  How did they know they could?  They did.  They knew they could.  And I'll tell you what.  If, after giving the money, nothing happened, if it had become known that Hillary would not meet with you, if it had been learned that Hillary would not do favors, that money would dry up.  They're not sending that money in 'cause they love Hillary, they love Bill.  There had to be a quo, there had to be a quid, there had to be a pro, there had to be a payoff somehow, somewhere, or a promise to, otherwise the money dries up. 
The Clinton Foundation is a front organization.  A little bit of charity over here to keep everybody happy and occupied while a whole lot of corruption is going on over here.  It's a laundromat.  It's a laundromat for donations to the Clintons.  And again, they didn't have to advertise it.  People just knew.  How did they know?  I'm not asking it rhetorically.  I know you're, "Well, what do you mean, Rush?  How they know?  I mean, the Clintons have been known" -- I know, that's my whole point.  The Clintons have been selling access since the Lincoln Bedroom days.  The Clintons have been selling access since they've been in politics.  That's how everybody knew.  That's why they didn't have to advertise it. 
The Clintons had been corrupt from the get go.  And Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, when these bribes came in they don't seem to be embarrassed or insulted by it.  Imagine you're working at the Clinton Foundation and the phone rings, it's sleazebag potentate from the Middle East, "Hello.  I wish to donate $50 million to the Clinton Family Foundation in exchange for a 10-minute meeting with Hillary Clinton." 
"Sir, how dare you think that the secretary of state's time is up for sale."  There was none of that.  There was, "Oh, okay.  Well, how about if you want 20 minutes, make it $60 million."  Why was there no embarrassment?  Why weren't these people insulted?  None of that, because this was a well-oiled operation, a laundromat.  Huma Abedin Weiner and Cheryl Mills were ecstatic when sleazebags from around the world phoned in, wanted a meeting with Hillary, and were more than happy to pay millions of dollars for it.  This open-door corruption policy was working just as designed, and it didn't require any advertising. 
Look, folks, if the Clintons were not interested in selling policy favors, well, then none of this would have gone on.  But here's the second route.  Okay, so sleazebag potentate A -- or pick any of them, pick any of these sleazebags that are giving money to the Clinton Crime Family Foundation.  Everybody thinks that the Clintons have to perform in order to justify getting the money.  But, but sleazebag potentate A gives -- pick a number -- $10 million to Hillary.  Hillary is gonna come back to sleazebag potentate A, and she's gonna ask him for something somewhere down the line, too.  It's gonna go both ways. 
It's not just that Hillary is vulnerable.  It's not just Hillary has to perform and pay off.  For granting the access and for doing favors, even though he's paid for it, she can still ask additional favors.  This is a two-way operation here, and I circle back to the question, why?  Why?  None of this is necessary to win the presidency.  None of this. I mean, even if you don't know that Donald Trump's gonna be the nominee, and even if you think you're gonna have formidable opposition running for president in 2016 -- look, I need more time to delve into this question.  
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:  Okay.  I'm gonna get started on the phones.  People backed up here waiting patiently, but I'm gonna circle back to all this, Trump immigration and the big question:  Why are the Clintons risking everything doing what they're doing here when they don't have to? You may think you've got the answers, and you may have, but it doesn't mean that I'm not gonna keep asking the question, 'cause there's something more here.  I agree with Michael Goodwin.  There's something we don't know yet beyond what appears to be obvious. 
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:  You know, folks, I sit here, we report on and we talk about the Clintons a lot and we joke about them and we laugh about them.  In addition to everything else that we do, we criticize them, we shed light, shine light on them.  What they're doing here with this foundation is really unethical at the least, and it is really, really sleazy. 
Greetings.  Welcome back.  Great to have you.  Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, again at 800-282-2882. 
Would you just stop and think about this.  I realize that people have a jaundiced view of politics, and I realize people have a jaundiced view of the establishment, and I realize people fully understand what the establishment is and how the establishment's in a completely different world than the rest of us. They have connections, they have abilities, they have privileges, including flirting on the edges of the law that the rest of us don't have.  People are very much aware of that. 
But as everything happens, if it happens slowly, like the old story of the frog, you put a frog in a pan with cold water, and you put it on the stove and you turn on the heater, and the frog starts boiling but doesn't realize it until it's too late.  It's so gradual, you adjust, the frog adjusts to the temperature as it warms up until the breaking point, when it's too late.  And that's kind of the way all of this happens.  This sleaze has been going on for so long and it started out small with nobody knowing about it. 
Then we get little dribs and drabs of it here and there.  And by the time we find out just how dirty and filthy it is, we become kind of immune to it.  It's like cultural rot.  Thirty years ago you couldn't say certain words on TV.  The first time the words were uttered, people said, "That is outrageous!"  Remember the wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.  The outrage over that.  Now that wouldn't even raise an eyebrow.  So what used to be outrageous is the norm. 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan had a name for it:  Defining deviancy down.  And what that means is that as things deteriorate and rot, you finally give up trying to fix them because it's futile, because they're worsening, so you just give up and what used to be illegal becomes noncriminal and eventually legal.  And then eventually everything continues in a downward spiral.  That is the Clintons.  The Clintons have been on a perpetual downward spiral of corruption and ethical shenanigans for so long that a revelation like this -- this is really, in and of itself, just by itself, in another era this would have disqualified the Clintons and it would have shamed them, and they would be out of public life. 
But Bill Clinton didn't even suffer any shame over the Lewinsky scandal and being convicted of perjury before a grand jury and grand jury testimony, losing his law license. He's a rock star in the Democrat Party.  Monica Lewinsky's life was pretty much destroyed.  The feminist groups in the Democrat Party who claim to exist to guard against that very thing piled on and helped destroy Monica Lewinsky in order to protect Bill Clinton. 
Now, the Clinton Global Initiative and all this charitable stuff, I'm convinced that some of it is to change perceptions of Clinton from the Lewinsky scandal and everything that's part of it.  And you create the Clinton Global Initiative, you time its annual meeting with the UN's annual meeting in New York in September and October, and then you come up with the Clinton Family Foundation and you totally turn yourself into good works.
It's meant to rebuild the reputation from the Lewinsky days, because obviously Clinton doesn't want that to be the last thing in the historical record on his life or his legacy or any of that.  But even trying to turn it around, even trying to straighten out, the Clintons can't do anything but go lower.  They create the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Family Foundation, and it becomes a slush fund.  They get filthy rich in curious ways that appear to be on the edge of ethical, and now Hillary as secretary of state is selling access. 
You take this incident by itself and you transplant it into another era in this country, and they are finished.  This is a big deal.  But it isn't reported as a big deal for all the obvious reasons. The media wants her elected. The media is gonna protect her. The media is gonna do whatever they can to shield her and cast this as something, "Nothing to see here, no big deal, it's just politics-as-usual, she's not the first" -- whatever excuses they come up with.  But, folks, it's disqualifying. 
Here is a woman selling access to the United States Department of State, to donors, people donating to her personally.  They're not even giving to the United States.  They're giving to her. They're giving to her foundation, to her husband.  And they're giving major amounts of money, $32 million here, a hundred million dollars there, some of these shenanigans involve the United States uranium supply ending being transferred into the hands of people in Kazakhstan. 
The Clintons also have an underneath-the-table arrangement with one of the lead criminal oligarchs in Ukraine as a result of this foundation business.  I mean, it's just filthy.  In a sane world, it's totally unacceptable.  Whether you can prove criminality or not, this is one of those things where the perception of impropriety is so egregious, so obvious, so outrageous that people would be running away from it. They wouldn't want to be tied to it. They wouldn't want to be linked to it. They wouldn't want to have any association with it for fear of being tainted by it.  And yet no such things happen. 
Now, there is one, and it's only one, something of that sort that's happened.  It's kind of surprising to me.  USA Today has an editorial:  "Close Down the Clinton Foundation -- USA Today is calling for the Clinton Foundation to close down and transfer its charitable work to other groups." And here's what they say. "The only way to eliminate the odor surrounding the foundation is to wind it down and put it in mothballs, starting today, and transfer its important charitable work to another large American charity such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," or some such thing. "If Hillary Clinton doesn’t support these steps, she boosts Trump’s farcical presidential campaign and, if she’s elected, opens herself up to the same kind of pay-to-play charges that she was subject to as secretary of State."
Now, listen to their reasoning for this.  They're not asking her to shut it down because it's wrong.  They're not asking her to shut it down because it's sleazy and unethical.  They're not asking her to shut this down for any reason other than if she keeps this up, she's gonna help Trump.  Now, we can't have that, because Trump is a farce.  And if she keeps this up and if she's elected, she's gonna continue to open herself up to "the same kind of pay-to-play charges she was subject to as secretary of State."
Well, how much did that hurt her?  None of this stuff has hurt her.  And that's what the Clintons know.  None of this is gonna harm them.  They're gonna get rich and they're gonna get richer and their richer donors are gonna keep donating and their richer donors are gonna keep throwing parties and they're gonna keep throwing fundraisers and all the friends are gonna remain friends.  There's nothing that's gonna happen. 
The worst thing that can happen is this.  If Hillary Clinton loses the presidency, there is literally no reason for that foundation to stay open.  I'm not kidding.  If she isn't elected president, you think they're gonna continue to get donations of $30 million, $10 million, $1 million?  There won't be any reason to give that foundation any money if she's not elected president.  If she's not elected president, she's not gonna be appointed something in Trump's campaign, we don't think. 
Stop and think of it that way.  Everybody says, "Oh, the charity, man, it does such great work."  Yeah, well, it won't survive if she doesn't win the presidency.  What does that tell you about what it is? (imitating Clinton) "Hey, hey, Limbaugh, you forgot something, you're forgetting Chelsea."  I'm not forgetting her, Mr. President.  I don't think she's got a prayer being elected president, and you're not gonna have people give you $30 million on the come that she's gonna be elected president in 10 or 15 years.  Isn't gonna happen. 
This is just sleaze beyond the pale.  Sleaze doesn't even describe what this is.  Even I'm guilty of this. We all laugh about it, we chuckle about it, it's the Clintons, it's more of the same, it's just worse than what they've done prior. But there isn't any itinerant or accompanying outrage by any of the people who are uncovering -- even the AP in uncovering the story, they don't really have a whole lot bad to say about it, they're just reporting the facts, which that's more than we can expect from this bunch. 
And of course USA Today "shut it down," but that's only because it helps Trump, not because it's wrong, not because it's sleazy.  That's not even democratic.  This is beyond the pale. 
Now, before we end this segment, I want to circle back here.  Michael Goodwin, columnist at the New York Post, "The Only Question Left for Hillary -- What Else Are You Hiding?" He is of the opinion everything we know about this doesn't explain why it's happening.  And let me run through the reasons.  Okay, some people might say that they want to get rich. 
Even I have said that there will never be enough money for the Clintons.  Ever since they got into politics. Hell, they went to Yale, they have been surrounded by real wealth, I mean blue-blood wealth. I mean the kind of money that they have never even only dreamed of.  And it's tough when that's your circle of friends and you don't have it.  So they've had this quest to get rich and to do it as quickly as they can ever since they got married and went to Arkansas. It's been what their primary existence has been, is to get rich, to leverage everything they accomplish toward getting big money, and never will they ever have enough, is the theory, and that's why they're continuing to do this. 
Goodwin says the easy answers about why she did what she did -- I mean, all of this stuff puts her at risk, the private email server, which she had to know was gonna be discovered. This accepting donations in exchange for policy preferences for donors, pay-to-play, pay-and-play, why risk your presidential aspirations this way?  And the answer to that question is there's got to be something more that we don't understand. 
The easy answers about why she did all of this are too obvious:  Wanted to get rich, didn't want anybody to know her business.  Throw in her chronic paranoia, her chronic sense of entitlement, and she and Bill have a rationale for thinking they were above the law.  They had escaped his impeachment trial, so they believed they have lifetime immunity.  And I believe they think they do.  But it's impossible to believe that that's all there is in terms of explaining why they are doing this. 
Goodwin writes, "There has to be more, probably something so big and awful, it would destroy her if it’s discovered. ... The added riches they collected through what I believe are corrupt actions weren’t necessary. They were getting legitimately rich on his and her book contracts alone. And what difference would another donation make to the foundation, which was already swimming in more money than it could spend?
"Because none of this adds up to a coherent explanation, I believe we are still in the dark about a hidden bombshell. There must be a secret Unholy Grail that explains her self-destructive behavior of stonewalling and lying." But he says he's not gonna speculate what it is because his imagination is too limited and he's no match for what the Clintons can imagine.  They pioneered new ways of selling access, the Lincoln Bedroom and so forth. 
I found the question intriguing.  Because even if you think the Clintons do think they're immune and they've got the press in their back pocket and they think they can get away with any scandal whatsoever, they're still -- see, when she starts all this, when Bill and Hillary start all this foundation stuff, Clinton Global Initiative, selling access as secretary of state then selling access on the come as president, they can't possibly know four years ago that the Republicans are gonna nominate Donald Trump. 
They have got to figure the Republicans are gonna nominate somebody they consider formidable.  Maybe they don't.  Maybe they think that the Republicans are such patsies, that the Republicans aren't gonna pursue anything discovered that the Clintons do, but clearly they put a lot of their aspirations as risk engaging in this wanton unethical behavior with now USA Today demanding that they shut it down.  The question remains why.  
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:  This is Robert in Owasso, Oklahoma.  It's great to have you with us on the EIB Network.  Hello.
CALLER:  Hi, Rush.
RUSH:  Hey.
CALLER:  It is an honor to speak with you.  I've been listening to you on a daily basis since the Oklahoma City bombing, so this definitely is something I can mark off my bucket list.
RUSH:  Well, that's 1996, '95, somewhere around in there.  Yeah.
CALLER:  My question --
RUSH:  That's many, many moons.  A little Indian lingo.
CALLER:  Yes.  The question I had was regarding that AP story.  You know, Secretary Clinton signed a separation agreement that she was not going to be doing business with the foundation when she was secretary of state.  So essentially she not only lied to the administration, she lied to the president.  So at this point, you know, what does Obama do? You know, what is gonna safeguard him? I mean, why would he not go ahead and unleash the Department of Justice and say, you know, "Investigate all of them"?
RUSH:  Well, why would Obama not unleash the Department of Justice on her private email server and the things that went on there?  You know, this requires pure speculation.  There are so many competing theories here.  I mean, some people have the theory that Obama hates Hillary, just doesn't like her.  So why did he make her secretary of state?  Well, it's to keep her in tent, not outside the tent.  It's the old thing.
You make her a part of the Regime so she can't rip the Regime, and if she's in the Regime, she's gotta be a loyal player, particularly if she wants to go further.  So... "Well, then, if Obama hates her, why'd Obama help pay off her campaign debt?" Same thing.  Same thing.  You don't want the Clintons out there trashing you in your first term while you're trying to obliterate the Constitution and do whatever else you're trying to do.  So then why not unleash things on her, if, for example, what you mentioned, the pay-to-play operation at the State Department...?
Look, wild guess here.  But it is obvious, it's apparent that Obama doesn't want to do anything that's gonna damage Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy.  He's had clear-and-present opportunity to do it.  He doesn't want to.  You have to chalk it up to party loyalty, have to chalk it up to, "I don't want the Republicans coming in here and unraveling everything I've done." And also by letting her skate, she is going to continue to owe him which gives him continuing leverage over her.  Am I understanding your question correctly?
CALLER:  Yes, sir.  I guess my point is, I think we've all come to the conclusion that Obama is pretty much a narcissist, and this is going to be about his legacy. His policies haven't worked. Obamacare's falling apart. His foreign policy's a joke.
RUSH:  That's not gonna be --
CALLER: Our economy --
RUSH: Whoa, whoa! That's not gonna be his legacy.  His legacy is gonna be national socialized medicine.  Obama's legacy is gonna be, "He tried markets, and they didn't work, and he had to finally get the government to come in and rescue the beleaguered health care system."  The people writing about Obama today are the ones who are gonna write his legacy, and it's not gonna be negative. 
CALLER: (silence)
RUSH: Are you stumped on that one?
CALLER:  No, sir.  Not at all.  Just wanted clarification on that.  And one last thing before we go: Let me say, it's an honor to talk to you.  But I want to get back to something Nathan said, one of your first callers, about President Reagan.  I'm of that generation that grew up with him as the commander-in-chief and, you know, the leadership that he showed, that's definitely something we missed, and I think that for the screwball as he is sometimes, I think Trump reminds a lot of people of President Reagan.
RUSH:  You know, I hear that. That has always... I'll be honest: That has intrigued me.  
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