President Obama cannot vouch for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s dealings as secretary of state with her family’s charitable foundation, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday.
Whether the Clinton Foundation’s interests compromised her professional duties, reporters will have to ask Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Earnest said. What Obama can speak to is her “remarkable” service when she was the nation’s top diplomat, Earnest said.
“Republicans have, often falsely, tried to besmirch” her tenure, “but the president can speak first hand” about the excellent job she did, Earnest said, after being asked questions about “Clinton Inc.”
A memo revealed by WikiLeaks described how aides worked with Clinton Foundation donors to set up paying gigs for President Clinton, a system one aide described as, “Bill Clinton Inc.” That memo feeds into worries and complaints that the Clinton Foundation was a charity that also helped funnel money to the Clintons, but also gained them favor in the State Department when it was run by Hillary Clinton.
