What the Clinton Foundation does—and why Hillary Clinton should point to it with pride

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Wednesday, August 24, 2016, 9:28 am

While pundits are tearing their clothes over an AP story showing almost 3% of meetings that Hillary Clinton held at the State Department involved people who had donated to the Clinton Foundation—so long as you extend the list to people who were involved in other charitable groups which donated to the foundation, and you limit your data to just a subset of Hillary’s time as Secretary of State. Which is frankly not shocking at all, no matter how much froth is produced over it.

The Clinton Foundation hasn’t put one penny in the pockets of either Bill or Hillary Clinton. And extensive reviews haven’t found any evidence—any evidence—that it affected a single action at the State Department.

And yet both pundits and some politicians are hand-wringing and following Donald Trump in calling for the immediate closure of the foundation.

So here’s a nice CNN review of just what the Clinton Foundation is, and what it does.

Bill Clinton set up the public charity after he wrapped up his presidency in 2001 with the idea of bringing government, businesses and social groups together to tackle big problems. It was kind of a new idea at the time. On Monday, Clinton wrote in a post on Medium that the foundation is about "creating opportunities and solving problems faster, better, at lower cost so that more people are empowered to build better futures for themselves, their families and their communities." …

The foundation is made up of 11 non-profit groups that work on four major issues: global health and wellness, climate change, economic development and improving opportunities for girls and women.

And perhaps most critically …

Health is a big focus. In more than 70 countries, according to the foundation, it helps 11.5 million people, including 800,000 children, with HIV/AIDS get their medication at 90% lower cost -- more than half the adults and three-quarters of the children getting treatment in the world today.

All those calling for the immediate closure of the foundation are calling for the disruption of health care to over 11 million people, and putting in doubt the lives of over half the people being treated for HIV anywhere in the world. Read that part again: the Clinton Foundation helps 800,000 kids getting treatment for HIV/AIDS. That’s what it means to shut down the Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Clinton should be proud of everything about the Clinton Foundation. And those people like Trump, who is genuinely trying to profit by placing thousands of children at risk, or the pundits shaking their heads over the “optics” of the situation, should be deeply, deeply ashamed.

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