Morning Joe hosts slam 'sleazy' Clinton Foundation for 'shaking down the world for $66 million'

(Image credit: KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/Getty Images)

published 27 October 2016

Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough wondered Thursday morning why there was such a fuss over reporter David Fahrenthold's story in The Washington Post about the "life-size portrait" of himself Donald Trump bought with charity money when there are clearly bigger fish to fry — like, say, the latest Clinton Foundation controversy. A 2011 memo by former Clinton White House aide and then-Clinton Foundation adviser Doug Band published Wednesday by WikiLeaks revealed Band worked in an "unorthodox nature" to obtain "in-kind services" for the Clintons, raise money for the Clinton Foundation, and secure speaking roles for former President Bill Clinton.

"You're shaking down the world for $66 million instead of a Rolex watch or a life-size portrait. I mean [Fahrenthold] is going to win a Pulitzer Prize for finding a life-size portrait of Donald Trump that [Trump] paid money for with a foundation," Scarborough said. "We're talking about $66 million here, maybe $100 million."

Co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed, saying the Clinton story is "just bigger. Larger amounts of money and the world is used as opposed to Palm Beach and a flag."