Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's decision to accept foreign donations to the family foundation during her tenure in the Obama administration was "politically, just dumb and inept," said Chuck Todd.
Speaking on
NBC's "Morning Joe," the "Meet the Press" moderator said the Clintons should have known well that it would create the appearance of a conflict of interest, and noted that there were repeated warnings of such problems by several Obama officials and congressmen in the run-up to her confirmation for the post.
"How many more warnings did the Clintons need to have, and yet they ended up doing these things?" Todd asked. "It's politically, though, just dumb and inept."
On Friday,
The Wall Street Journal criticized Clinton after documents revealed that the Clinton Foundation received
large donations from a Russian group at the same time that it was seeking to buy Uranium One, which had to be approved by Clinton's State Department.
Todd said he thinks the fallout is largely "circumstantial," but focused on the Clinton family's lack of concern for "political judgment."
The Clintons have defended their foundation's controversial donations, and insisted that the claims were the makings of a
right-wing conspiracy theory, but Todd said "the appearance of it is terrible."
"I'm surprised someone hasn't said, you know what, no foreign governments for any presidential libraries," he said. "Bush Libraries have been built by foreign money, Clinton Library and Foundation with foreign money — the appearance is just too awful."