President Obama will not attend the final meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative next month, according to a new report.
Obama is skipping the mid-September event even though he will be in New York as it occurs, Politico said Tuesday.
{mosads}“[It’s] a function of schedule,” a White House official said Tuesday.
“The president has spoken at their gathering several times and has expressed how much he values the work being done by the [Clinton] Foundation around the world.”
Obama’s decision is unrelated to lingering concerns about the Clinton Foundation’s ties with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the official told the newspaper.
Politico said Obama plans to attend the United Nations General Assembly while visiting New York instead.
Obama attended the initiative’s annual conference during the first six years of his presidency. He did not attend the meeting in 2015, Politico reported, the same year Clinton launched her presidential bid.
Former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband, launched the organization as his post-presidential project uniting business and world leaders 12 years ago.
The Clinton Foundation, which runs the the global initiative, is under new scrutiny now that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee.
Reports emerged last week that the Clintons’ organization would no longer accept corporate or foreign donations if Hillary Clinton becomes president.
Under the proposed changes, the family’s charitable group would only accept donations from U.S. citizens and independent charities.
Bill Clinton announced Monday he would step down from the Clinton Foundation should his wife win the White House.
The former president also dismissed charges the charitable organization should shut down during a Hillary Clinton administration.
“While my role in the work will change, the work itself should continue because so many people are committed to it and so many more are relying on it,” he wrote in an open letter.
Bill Clinton vowed he would leave the group’s board and cease fundraising for its operations if Hillary Clinton is elected this November.
The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation would be renamed The Clinton Foundation, he added.
Donald Trump on Monday called for the Clinton Foundation to cease operations even before a Hillary Clinton presidency.
“What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as secretary of State was wrong then, and it’s wrong now,” the GOP nominee said in a statement. “It must be shut down immediately. It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history.”
Trump has repeatedly slammed the Clintons for accepting money from countries with poor human rights records.
Others have raised questions about undue foreign influence while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State.