After an Associated Press report that exposed how numerous Clinton Foundation donors were able to set up meetings with Hillary Clinton while Secretary of State, NBC correspondent and resident Clinton fangirl, Andrea Mitchell rushed to defend her on NBC Nightly News Tuesday. Mitchell seemed to be annoyed by the persistent scandal, calling it, “A headache for the Clinton campaign that could last until the election and beyond.”
According to the AP, “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.” And in addition, “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.”
Mitchell parroted the Clinton campaign reporting that, “Tonight the Clinton campaign responding saying the story relies on, “Utterly flawed data. It cherry-picked a limited subset of Secretary Clinton’s schedule.”” Even though the AP reported that their findings come from the “calendars released so far” to them.
Although, Mitchell did admit that the Crown Price of Bahrain and “good friend” used his special relationship with the foundation to set up a meeting with Clinton. “Abedin arranges a meeting after he goes through diplomatic channels,” Mitchell claims. She continued to try to downplay the pay-for-play accusations by writing off Clinton’s actions, explaining, “This would not necessarily violate laws or ethical agreements the Clintons signed.”
She even interviewed John Heilemann of Bloomberg to back her up. In the report Heilemann refers to the accusations as merely, “a huge new target for the Trump campaign to dive on top of and a huge new bunch of targets to have to defend.”
Transccript below:
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NBC
Nightly News
August 23, 2016
7:03:45 PM Eastern
LESTER HOLT: To presidential politics and Donald Trump calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton. Amid new questions about the Clinton Foundation, power brokers and how much access they got to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state. NBC's Andrea Mitchell has new details.
[Cuts to video]
ANDREA MITCHELL: Tonight the drip, drip, drip of the Clinton campaign as many as 15,000 emails could be released before the election, and now Donald Trump calling for a special prosecutor.
DONALD TRUMP: The amounts involved, the favors done and the significant number of times it was done require an expedited investigation.
MITCHELL: Hillary Clinton trying to laugh it off with Jimmy Kimmel.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Have you considered using face-time instead of email?
HILLARY CLINTON: Actually I think that's really good advice. Not a bad idea, it's a good idea.
MITCHELL: In fact tonight, according to State Department calendars being reviewed by the Associated Press more than half the people outside the government who met or called Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State gave money to the Clinton Foundation.
Tonight the Clinton campaign responding saying the story relies on, “Utterly flawed data. It cherry-picked a limited subset of Secretary Clinton’s schedule.” It comes after questions over whether donors got special access. In one email, foundation official Douglas Band writes Clinton aide Huma Abedin for a meeting with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, also a big donor; Noting, “good friend of ours.” A few days later, Abedin arranges a meeting after he goes through diplomatic channels. This would not necessarily violate laws or ethical agreements the Clintons signed.
JOHN HEILEMANN: It's a huge new target for the Trump campaign to dive on top of and a huge new bunch of targets to have to defend.
MITCHELL: A headache for the Clinton campaign that could last until the election and beyond.
