Dean defends Clinton against NY Times

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) on Thursday accused The New York Times of unfairly targeting the Clinton Foundation’s financial dealings.
 
“I use The New York Times as an example in journalism classes because by the fifth paragraph in any political story — you can probably find one right here — whatever the political story is, by the fifth paragraph they’re substituting their judgment for news,” Dean said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
 
{mosads}The New York Times reported on Thursday that a Clinton Foundation donor sold his uranium mining company to Russian buyers in a deal approved by the State Department while Clinton was its secretary.
 
Dean said these allegations were political smears against Clinton as she begins her 2016 presidential campaign for Democrats.
 
Dean charged that the article’s authors did not properly research their sources. Had they done so, he alleged, they would have found ties to GOP 2016 contenders like Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas).
 
“There are plenty of people who write for The New York Times and every other paper that I think are incredibly sloppy, and I could name a lot of them,” he said of the publication’s reporters.
 
The Clinton Foundation on Thursday announced it would redo multiple tax returns and audit others amid public concerns over its financial transparency.
 
Author Peter Schweizer’s upcoming book Clinton Cash first exposed allegations of the organization’s possible wrongdoing.
 
His work argues that Clinton profited off foreign donations to her foundation in exchange for making particular policy decisions during her tenure as secretary of State.
 
The Clinton campaign has dismissed Schweizer as a conservative operative with political motivations. Campaign chairman John Podesta on Monday said the book’s accusations were without merit.
 
“He’s cherry-picked information that has been disclosed and woven a bunch of conspiracy theories about it,” he charged.
 
Clinton Cash is due in bookstores starting May 5.