Who’s Corrupt?
“…the notion that a voter ought to support Trump over Clinton on grounds of financial ethics or transparency is insane.”
Jonathan Chait reminds us that keeping things in perspective matters. “Questions have been raised” about some of Hillary’s actions (and every examination of those questions finds there’s nothing there), but no such weasel words are required when it comes to The Donald.
Hillary Clinton Can’t Let Donald Trump Win the Corruption Issue
Follow the money! No, not my money. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s campaign is signaling that its new, post-first-debate message will be an attack on Hillary Clinton’s finances, under the catchphrase “Follow the money.” This is probably Trump’s most fruitful avenue of attack. The Clinton Foundation has created appearances of a conflict of interest, and the Clintons’ policy of accepting speaking fees from any source as long as the check would clear the bank has tarnished her image, and months of bashing at the hands of Bernie Sanders left her branded in the mind of many young liberals as a handmaiden of Wall Street.
And yet the notion that a voter ought to support Trump over Clinton on grounds of financial ethics or transparency is insane. Trump is corrupt on a world-historic scale. Andrew Prokop’s summary merely skims the surface of a career that has left hardly any rule or norm of business conduct un-violated. It is not only Trump’s history of misconduct, or even his ongoing abuse of his foundation for personal gain, but his astonishing promise, if elected, to continue to abuse his power to enrich himself by having his children manage his branded business that he will enhance via public office.
BTW, the Andrew Prokop piece to which Chait points above includes these sections.
- Trump has a history of shady business practices
- Trump has used other people’s donations to his charity to benefit himself
- Trump University is facing a fraud trial
- Trump won’t release his tax returns, which is unprecedented for a recent presidential candidate
- Trump has spent millions of dollars of campaign funds on Trump businesses
- Donald Trump has surrounded himself with shady people during this campaign
- Trump’s corruption is a threat to our norms of governance
The piece adds lots of flesh to those bones.