Politics

White House Continues Dodging Clinton Donations, Blames ‘Conservative Authors’ [VIDEO]

Al Weaver Reporter
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For the second day in a row, White House press secretary Josh Earnest dodged inquiries about questionable donations to the Clinton Foundation during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department.

Pressed by ABC’s Jon Karl (also for the second day in a row) as to whether the accepted donations met the administrations “standards,” Earnest flipped the script, blaming “conservative authors” who pen books critical of Clinton.

“We now know that there were some $2 million in donations that came, essentially, from Uranium One to the Clinton Foundation that were not disclosed at the time,” Karl told Earnest Friday. “Can you acknowledge that at least that did not meet up to the standards that were expected based on the memorandum of understanding between Hillary Clinton and the president?”

Earnest referred Karl’s initial question to the State Department or Clinton’s campaign.

“But you made it clear at the time that the donations would be made public,” Karl said. “This was not some promise that Hillary Clinton made off to the side. This was an agreement that she had with the White House, with the president. We now know $2 million in donations essentially from Uraniaum while this transaction was — even aside from [the State Department’s] approval of [Uranium One’s] transaction, the fact that you had such a large donation — group of donations — coming in that were not disclosed.”

“That doesn’t concern the White House at all?” Karl asked Earnest. “That lived up to the standards that were set by the president?”

Earnest told the ABC News reporter that there is “no evidence” indicating that the donations had any impact on the policy decision between the two camps.

“I have been in the position where other, to put it mildly, conservative authors have launched written books based on what they purport to be serious allegations against the President of the United States. And I’m often in the position of responding to those incidents and trying to defend the president from accusations that are not rooted or accompanied by any evidence,” Earnest said. “My point is that right now that’s what’s happening to Secretary Clinton. And there’s a spokesman that Secretary Clinton hired who can answer these questions.”

Later on, Fox News’ Kevin Corke pressed Earnest as to whether Clinton’s behavior “met the ethical standard” of the Obama administration.

Earnest told Corke, much like he did with Karl, that there is no evidence to suggest that she did, adding further that he should ask Clinton’s campaign for further comment.