Ya gotta love the sheer, decidedly out front, hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump, the sitting president of the United States, has accepted the gift of a plane from the government of Qatar. A gift that will go to the U.S. Department of Defense. And yet his decidedly forgetful critics — with Hillary Clinton at the top of the list — go crazy.
Says Hillary: “No one gives someone a $400 million jet for free without expecting anything in return. Be serious.”
Hello? Let’s be serious.
To refresh the memories of these critics, let’s take a stroll down memory lane with the Clintons and gifts.
Here is a CBS report from back there in 2002. The headline: “Clinton Gifts Called ‘Disturbing.’”
CBS reported as follows, with bold print for emphasis supplied:
Expensive gifts poured into the Clinton White House in the weeks between Hillary Rodham Clinton’s election to the Senate from New York and her swearing-in last year, according to a new congressional investigation.
The congressman who oversaw the investigation called Sen. Clinton’s acceptance of the gifts “disturbing at best.”
At a Tuesday hearing, Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif., said, “The current system is broken and needs to be fixed.”
He said his investigators found undervalued gifts, others that were never reported and still more that disappeared.
The examination of gifts to the Clintons also found that 17 separate gifts of china, cutlery and furniture worth more than $75,000 arrived in December 2000 alone, at a time when the Clintons were looking to furnish two newly purchased homes, one each in Washington and Chappaqua, N.Y.
…
The Clintons took with them $360,000 worth of large gifts when they left the White House in January 2001, according to the yearlong investigation by a House Government Reform subcommittee. The Clintons also left with additional gifts too small to trigger public disclosure.
Got that? Hillary Clinton attacks Trump, saying: “No one gives someone a $400 million jet for free without expecting anything in return. Be serious.”
OK. Let’s be serious.
Nobody gives Hillary and Bill “$360,000 worth of large gifts when they left the White House in January 2001 without expecting anything in return.”
Then there was this from Red State: “Hillary Clinton Rips Trump Over Qatar Plane, Gets Slapped With Reminder of the Gifts She Accepted.”
The story reports, with, again, bold print for emphasis supplied:
Clinton, ever the grizzled political veteran, had to know that critics’ responses were going to come flying in fast and furious, even with the comments on her posts being turned off.
And they most certainly did, many of which involved gentle reminders that Clinton was embroiled in countless pay-to-play donation controversies while serving as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. Not to mention, while preparing to run for President.
One such gift came from — you guessed it — Qatar.
Reuters reported on a $1 million donation sent in 2011 by Qatari officials to the Clinton Foundation in honor of her husband’s birthday. The Foundation was forced to confirm that it received the gift from Qatar “without informing the State Department,” while Clinton was Secretary of State, after hacked emails published by Wikileaks years later revealed they wanted to meet Bill in person to hand him the check.
According to the same report, the Qatari government had donated up to $5 million to the foundation over the years, which were significant gifts to a former and, what many thought at the time, future President.
One could go on and on and on with this particular Clinton hypocrisy.
But it all boils down to the hard fact that President Trump, unlike the Clintons and his other critics, is a self-made billionaire from his career in business, not from using political office to get paid for favors. And he already has not one but two planes — a 757 emblazoned with his name and a Citation jet. (Seen here is the 757).
The status of the plane from Qatar in question is accurately reported as follows by Fox News: “The Boeing 747 offered to the United States by Qatar will be given to the Department of Defense, President Donald Trump said Tuesday, responding to questions about the legality of accepting a gift from a foreign power.”
Which is to say, the president, as commander in chief, accepted the plane as a gift to the United States and as such it “will be given to the Department of Defense.”
Well, of course.
Did Hillary Clinton understand all of this before issuing her baseless attack on her old rival?
Well, of course.
But she played the game anyway.
Which might explain why she will never be president.
READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord:
Trump Wins Hostage Edan Alexander’s Release
Stunning: An American Pope
Yes, Flag Day Is Trump’s Birthday — and the Army’s 250th Anniversary
