Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, wrote an op-ed today defending the Clinton Foundation. (Above is a picture of slick willy in his office.)
Ruddy’s defense of the foundation in Newsmax:
When I heard that Bill Clinton was making as much as $500,000 per speech and made many more millions in his post-presidency, I thought to myself, God bless him. This is the American way.
Former President Clinton’s speaker fees are probably in line with other former presidents who draw big fees, maybe bigger owing to his global popularity.
But God bless them all.
Business and organizations love to rub shoulders with iconic American leaders — though the money Clinton has earned is probably a fraction of what President George H.W. Bush made by signing up with The Carlyle Group, an international conglomerate that made most of its initial money from U.S. defense contracts and from foreign countries like Saudi Arabia.
The elder Bush served his country admirably over a long period, starting in World War II as a heroic pilot, and later in several public offices, including the presidency. He later got his reward after leaving the White House.
God bless George H.W. Bush.
So, it is not every day that I defend Bill and Hillary Clinton, or the Clinton Foundation.
In fact, it may come as a surprise to some. In the 1990s I was described by both James Carville and George Stephanopoulos as the Clinton White House’s No. 1 press enemy. But after Bill Clinton left the White House, I came to admire him and his post-presidential work.
FLASHBACK: The so-called conservative Ruddy pledged $1 million to the Clinton Foundation in the past:
Via Weekly Standard:
Conservative website Newsmax has pledged a very large donation to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a new report in the Wall Street Journal states.
Newsmax, a conservative news organization, last year pledged $1 million to the Clinton Foundation over a five-year period, according to a spokesman for Chris Ruddy, the organization’s CEO. Mr. Ruddy has been friends with the Clintons since 2007,” reports the Journal.
“Through a spokesman, he said the donation wasn’t tantamount to an endorsement of Mrs. Clinton’s potential campaign, though he thinks she would ‘make a great presidential candidate.'”
Ruddy himself has even written a blog post for the Clinton Foundation website. The topic? “Public-Private Partnerships Advance Health Care in Mozambique.”
“Christopher Ruddy is a noted journalist and entrepreneur. He currently serves as CEO and President of Newsmax Media, one of the nation’s leading online news media companies. In 1998, Chris founded Newsmax Media, a multimedia publishing company that publishes online and offline content in the fields of news, politics, health and finance. Newsmax.com is consistently ranked as one of the country’s most trafficked news websites,” reads his bio on the foundation’s website.
Hmm…