Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Truthdig- Donald Trump's Revelation about Campaign Funding

August 8, 2015

Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

Trending:

MOST SHARED

REPORTS

Hillary Clinton Says She Didn’t Work on the Trans-Pacific PartnershipBy David Sirota

Why Israel’s Security Experts Support the Iran Deal—and Iran’s Hard-Liners Don’tBy Joe Conason

GOP Debate: Donald Trump Shows Why He’s the Leader of the PackBy Eugene Robinson

EAR TO THE GROUND

Donald Trump Got Republicans to Admit They’re Bought and Sold

Muckracking Brazilian Radio Journalist Shot Dead While on Air

John Kerry: Vietnam War Was a ‘Profound Failure’ of Diplomacy

Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie’s Big Claims: Fact-Checking the GOP Debate

A/V BOOTH

VIDEO: Colorado Theater Gunman James Holmes Sentenced to Life in Prison

VIDEO: Seeing Nagasaki After the Atomic Bombing Made Lawrence Ferlinghetti an ‘Instant Pacifist’

ANIMATION

Trophy Hunting and You

ARTS & CULTURE

Creatures of a DayBy Alexis Camins

‘Diary of a Teenage Girl’ Gets Adolescent Sexuality RightBy Carrie Rickey

Have Rich, White Feminists Made Matters Worse for Sex Workers?

AUDIO: ‘Love in the Time of Climate Change’: A Romantic Call to Action in the Shape of a Poem

Stepping Stones: Interviews With Seamus Heaney

By Dennis O'Driscoll
$21.12

Donald Trump Got Republicans to Admit They’re Bought and Sold

Posted on Aug 8, 2015

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Gage Skidmore / CC-BY-SA)

None of the contenders at the GOP debate in Cleveland on Thursday disputed Donald Trump’s characterization of a U.S. government controlled by private money.
Trump had bragged that he could buy politicians, including those on the stage with him. In a previous interview he’d said: “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.”
“You’d better believe it,” he said Thursday. “If I ask them, if I need them, you know, most of the people on this stage I’ve given to, just so you understand, a lot of money.”
The only complaints came from two candidates who insisted that Trump hadn’t given them any money. Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-Fla.) said that Trump donated to his Democratic opponent, while Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said, “I hope you will give to me.”
Trump replied: “Sounds good. Sounds good to me, governor.”
Lee Fang writes at The Intercept:

Without missing a beat, the real estate tycoon continued: “I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them, and they are there for me.” He added, “And that’s a broken system.”
Repeatedly asked what he got in return for his donations, Trump said: “With Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. You know why? She didn’t have a choice because I gave. I gave to a foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good.”
... Trump was illustrating the key problem with the current campaign finance system. Campaign contributions are legally considered bribes only when there is an explicit quid-pro-quo. But as Trump explained, giving money to politicians bought him access and relationships, which he could leverage down the road in the form of favors. Such conflicts of interest are inherent in privately funded election systems.

Meanwhile, independent socialist and Democratic candidate for the presidency Bernie Sanders has pledged not to fund his campaign with super PAC money.
Read more here.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems?Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.