Reporter Bob Woodward quipped Friday on MSNBC's Morning Joe he didn't think George Stephanopoulos' $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation would buy much influence with the Clintons except "maybe a four-minute speech by Bill."
"When you give to any organization, any individual, you need to have a Mother Teresa test," Woodward said. "In other words, is this pure? And be really, really careful, and he wasn't careful ... I don't think $75,000 is going to buy much with the Clintons. Maybe a four-minute speech by Bill."
Stephanopoulos, the ABC anchor and former Clinton communications aide, acknowledged Thursday that he'd made the previously undisclosed donations, even while reporting on the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation itself, after the Washington Free Beacon's Andrew Stiles discovered them. He claimed he only made them to support their work on AIDS prevention and deforestation.
"What's head-scratching is those charities that he wants to support, AIDS charities, deforestation are the ones he mentioned," said Huffington Post's Sam Stein. "There are other charities without the Clinton name associated to it that he could have given to to prevent all this from taking place."
It is notable that on This Week April 26 that Stephanopoulos grilled Peter Schweizer, the author of a book that, among other things, is critical of the influence of Clinton Foundation donors over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At one point, he referred to Schweizer's potential partisan bias since he once worked for President George W. Bush.
The Clintons have taken heat for charging six-figure fees to make speeches. Bill Clinton recently joked that "I gotta pay our bills," drawing more criticism from across the political spectrum for being tone-deaf. The Clintons have made more than $130 million since leaving the White House in 2001.