There were valid reasons for Hillary Clinton to meet with many of the Clinton Foundation donors beyond their large contributions to the charity, Democratic strategist James Carville said Wednesday, while defending it as being an important organization that helps save lives.
"One-third of the people [with] pediatric AIDS get their medication through the Clinton Foundation," Carville said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "They reduced the cost of malaria drugs probably by 85 percent. They do microlending."
He said he also considers the foundation "a terrific organization" that is one of Bill Clinton's greatest achievements.
According to an Associated Press report, more than half of the people outside the government who met with Clinton while she was secretary of state had donated either personally or through other entities. According to State Department calendars released to the AP, 85 of 154 donors with private interests, contributing as much as $156 million, met with Clinton or spoke with her on the phone.
Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering low-interest "microcredit" for poor business owners, also met with Clinton three times, while authorities in his nation's government were investigating his oversight of a non-profit bank, the report claimed.
"He is the person who started microlending which probably helped more people in poverty than anyone, and he won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2008," Carville said of Yunus. "He is almost a lifelong friend of the Clintons [and] he was being repressed by the government of Bangladesh. If the State Department can't help a Nobel Prize-winning economist who is being subject to oppression by the host government who can they help? The Clinton Foundation uses him a lot. They do a lot of microlending."
Carville also mentioned Middle East peace advocate Danny Abraham, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his efforts.
Meanwhile, the Clintons were not taking any money from the foundation and in fact had given it millions of dollars over the years, Carville insisted, and its board serves without pay.
"It's one of the best-run foundations in the world," Carville said. "Now, the idea that people are involved in the foundation are also involved with public, private partnerships around the world, that's one of the things they do. So of course, this doesn't count heads of state or people in government."
Carville also discussed recent trips by Trump and President Barack Obama to Baton Rouge, La., to tour the flood devastation, and he defended Obama for staying away from the zone until his vacation ended.
"We had a rule in the Clinton administration, the president didn't come until I told him all clear," Carville said.
He also praised Trump for his visit last week to the flooded region.
"He gave $100,000 to a church which was very effective," Carville said. "Thank you, Donald Trump."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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