MSNBC’s Morning Joe lambasted Hillary Clinton on Monday for one of her senior aides appointing a Clinton Foundation donor to a sensitive intelligence board in the State Department that handles classified material, while Clinton was the secretary of state.
The donor, Rajiv Fernando, was a stock trader and reportedly had no experience or qualifications in national security affairs. Fernando was put on the International Security Advisory Board by Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills. He had donated extensively to various Democratic candidates and the Clinton Foundation.
"The Clinton campaign told ABC that Fernando was appointed to the board to reflect a balance of backgrounds and points of view, like, for instance, people that know absolutely nothing about intel. People that know absolutely nothing about nuclear security," co-host Joe Scarborough said.
"By the way, rich people who were completely ignorant about this," he continued. "It was shocking to the people that actually were on that board."
"You want to balance qualified with unqualified to get a range of skills," Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin joked.
Halperin then discussed how it is normal for high level campaign donors to be appointmented to some positions, especially ambassadorships to less important countries.
"The Clinton people will say, ‘This is business as usual. Every administration does favors for its donors.’ But this one went over the line," Halperin said.
New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore was also highly critical of the appointment.