Bill Clinton insists that donors to his family's charitable foundation didn't receive special treatment by Hillary Clinton's State Department, saying that allegations of favoritism are purely politically motivated.
"Nobody even suggested it or thought about it or talked about it until the political season began, and somebody said, 'Well, what about this?'," Clinton told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview.
A number of reports have emerged over the past few months claiming Hillary Clinton used her State Department to dole out favors to various foreign interests who had either donated to the Clinton Foundation or paid Bill Clinton hefty speaking fees.
But Clinton told Tapper that no one has ever specifically asked him to do anything related to his wife's position as secretary of state, and he said he's unsure of whether those donors were seeking favors.
"I don't know. You never know what people's motives are; but, in this case, I'm pretty sure everybody that gave to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake saw what they saw on television, were horrified and wanted to make a difference," he said before adding that he doesn't "think Hillary would know either."
Clinton continued, "She was pretty busy those years, and I don't – I never saw her study a list of my contributors."
One example Clinton offered up was that of Boeing, which had worked with the State Department to sell planes while at the same time donating to the foundation's 2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts. "I don't think that they did it to make America, the government, like 'em better," he said regarding Boeing's motives.
Clinton's full interview, taped this week in Denver during a Clinton Global Initiative event, is scheduled to air this Sunday on CNN's first episode of "State of the Union with Jake Tapper."
