The BLOG: Politics

The enrichment of Bill and Hillary Clinton

Not since the Teapot Dome Scandal during the Harding Administration have Americans witnessed anything quite like the Clintons’ behavior between 2001 and 2012, when Hillary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State.

Maybe it is unwise to compare the enrichment of the Clintons to the Teapot Dome Scandal, which happened almost 100 years ago, as it is a relatively minor event in American history. But here is a brief tutorial: Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall from 1921-1922 received bribes to lease U.S. government oil properties to several companies at rock bottom prices with no competitive bidding. Ultimately, Secretary Fall went to jail — the first Cabinet member in American history to spend time in prison.

Now, to be clear, I do not believe that the influence-peddling and self-enrichment of the Clintons — especially during the time when Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State — should land either of them in jail. But the scale and manner in which the Clintons used their influence and power to enrich themselves, raise funds for the Clinton Foundation (in effect, their own personal political organization) and execute U.S. foreign policy is without precedent in American history.

In his extensively researched and thoroughly footnoted book, “Clinton Cash,” Peter Schweizer writes that once Bill Clinton left the White House, he collected  $105.5 million on the lecture tour between 2001 and 2012. And the majority of these payments came from foreign businesses, investors and governments eager to please the former U.S. President and the Senator from New York, who later became the U.S. Secretary of State — his wife, Hillary.

The most astonishing revelation in “Clinton Cash” is the complex chain of events that led to Vladimir Putin’s Russia controlling major uranium resources vital to U.S. national security. How could this happen? Bill and Hillary were involved in every stage of the process. It started with Bill Clinton assisting his friend and Canadian business magnate, Frank Giustra, to purchase uranium assets in Kazakhstan. The next stage was the sale of his company to Russian interests, and the final chapter ended some years later with Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, approving the sale of Uranium One — a major supplier of uranium to the U.S. — to Russia. Throughout this multi-year process, Bill Clinton received major speaking fees and the Clinton Foundation received large donations from key players in these transactions.

Now, Hillary Clinton is the leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2016. How can Americans possibly trust her to lead our nation? Even overlooking the Whitewater events and her tragically incompetent leadership during the Benghazi attack on our embassy, her actions, as revealed in “Clinton Cash,” reveal shockingly unethical and untrustworthy behavior. Before anyone votes to entrust Hillary Clinton with the Presidency of the United States, they should read Peter Schweizer’s remarkable story of the real Clintons. If we do elect her President, we will get what we deserve — an untrustworthy, devious, and unethical leader of this great nation.

The enrichment of Bill and Hillary Clinton: Part II