Blast from the past
by digby
I’m so old I remember when Republicans went absolutely batshit insane over the notion that a foreign country had illegally funneled money into a presidential campaign. It was a huge scandal that landed some American citizens in major trouble for taking money from Chinese nationals and donating to President Clinton’s campaign.
Here’s how Bill Clinton handled it:
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 13) — President Bill Clinton called today for a “vigorous” and “thorough” investigation into reports that representatives of the People’s Republic of China tried to direct financial contributions from overseas sources to the Democratic National Committee.
At a press conference today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president stopped short of calling for an independent prosecutor, saying that was the decision of the Justice Department alone.
“This is a serious set of questions raised here, and the first I knew about any of it was last evening,” Clinton told reporters. “They obviously have to be thoroughly investigated and I do not want to speculate or accuse anyone of anything. I know nothing about it other than what I heard last night.
“But obviously it would be a very serious matter for the United States if any country were to attempt to funnel funds to one of our parties for any reason whatever,” Clinton added.
The Washington Post reported that Justice was reviewing U.S. intelligence obtained through electronic monitoring that suggests contributions to the DNC from foreign sources were coordinated at the Chinese embassy in Washington. Sources told the Post the evidence was “serious” and could raise the importance of the investigation of Democratic fund-raising practices.
Some people were charged in that investigation but there was no evidence of any quid pro quo or that any of the Democrats even knew where the money came from.
But look at the difference in the way the two presidents handled the scandal. Clinton asked for a thorough investigation and reiterated the view that it was unacceptable for foreign governments would try to influence elections. Trump calls the whole thing a witch hunt, fires the FBI director, smears everyone in sight and says that the whole thing is a partisan stunt to deny him legitimacy. And then he goes overseas and acts as though Vladimir Putin is the King of the world.
But then, in the end it was determined that Clinton wasn’t guilty of anything more than unauthorized blowjobs,for which they impeached him under a stretched out definition of perjury and obstruction. Clearly, Trump doesn’t have to worry about unauthorized blowjobs or conflicts of interest. He was elected even though he admitted to sexually assaulting numerous women. And he believes that there is no such thing as a presidential conflict of interest so that’s off the table. You’d think he’d be confident enough to say what Clinton said. But he isn’t.
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