New allegations against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of pay-for-play while she was Secretary of State are "not going away" in the mainstream press.
Clinton was rocked this week by a bombshell New York Times article detailing millions of dollars going from Canadian uranium mining stakeholders to the Clinton Foundation, while Clinton's State Department approved a deal for the company that would wind up in Russian control. The Times editorial board, never accused of being conservative, wrote her campaign is being "overshadowed by questions about the interplay of politics and wealthy foreign donors who support the Clinton Foundation."
"The problem is not going away," it concluded.
ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir called it a "firestorm" Thursday and pivoted to the next segment by saying "these questions aren't going away."
NBC's Lester Holt reported on Clinton campaigning "amid a slew of negative headlines."
MSNBC's liberal Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski grew frustrated Thursday with Howard Dean's attacks on Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash, saying "the facts are the facts" regardless of Schweizer's rightward political leanings. She called the allegations "more than legitimate questions." On the same show Friday, Donny Deutsch expressed disgust with Clinton by saying people were "ready to turn the page" on her with each new corruption charge.
On CNN Friday morning, The Daily Beast's Jackie Kucinich also mocked the idea of dismissing the book because of Schweizer being a conservative, given that outlets like Newsweek and the New York Times are reporting off it. Schweizer also is planning a book on Jeb Bush's finances, putting to rest the idea he's simply a partisan.
"It's not going to get any better," Kucinich said. "There need to be answers for this."
The Clinton campaign pushed back on the accusations by saying Schweizer's book didn't produce a "shred of evidence" that Clinton ever took actions while in office to benefit Clinton Foundation donors.
CNN's John Berman questioned Friday why the campaign wouldn't simply deny the accusations outright if no malfeasance had truly taken place.
"Isn't that like taunting people, saying go out and find more evidence?" he asked. "Why don't they just say, 'This never happened, there was no interest-peddling here, the money never made any difference at all!'"
MSNBC's Steve Kornacki, filling in for Rachel Maddow Thursday night, strongly questioned the charges but acknowledged they were worthy of further dissection.
"There are difficult questions here," he said. "Murky questions here. But legitimate questions."