A defiant Bill Clinton admitted that some Clinton Foundation donors probably gave money to the charity in order to gain influence with the former president and his secretary of state wife.

But that doesn't mean there was any wrongdoing on his wife's part, he argued.

'Well, since we had more than 300,000 donors it would be unusual if nobody did,' Clinton said, when asked if foundation donors gave money thinking they could buy into a Clinton White House 2.0.

Referencing the Clinton Foundation donors who turned up in recent media reports for approaching his wife's State Department aides, the former president said 'none of them surprised me' and 'all of them could have gotten their own meeting with Hillary.'

'When you've been doing this kind of work for as long as we have, you know the people who are the major players,' the former president added.

Clinton again argued that there was nothing improper going on.

'It was natural for people who've been our political allies and personal friends to call and ask for things,' Clinton said. 'And I trusted the State Department wouldn't do anything they shouldn't do, from a meeting to a favor.'

'And so it didn't surprise me that people would call from time to time and maybe some of them gave money for that reason, but most of them gave it because they liked what we were doing because they knew me,' he said.

The former president gave a frank interview to NPR's 'Morning Edition,' as a curtain-raiser to his final Clinton Global Initiative, which kicks off this morning in New York City.

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Former President Bill Clinton kicked off his final Clinton Global Initiative today in New York City, as the charity has suffered a diminished reputation through Hillary Clinton's presidential run

Former President Bill Clinton opened up the Clinton Global Initiative today in New York City, but made no mention of the controversy surrounding his foundation

BOLD-FACED NAMES AT THE CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE Bono - frontman of U2 Ben Affleck - actor Jesse Jackson - reverend and civil rights activist Iman - model Jon Bon Jovi - rock star Madeleine Albright - former secretary of state Cecile Richards - president of Planned Parenthood Sadiq Khan - Mayor of London Mauricio Macri - President of Argentina Stefan Löfven - Prime Minister of Sweden Advertisement

In the opening session of CGI, Clinton didn't mention his charity's diminished reputation, instead touting the uniqueness of bringing government and corporate leaders together, alongside non-profits and those doing development work.

'When we started this in 2005 it was a great gamble,' he noted.

'I think more than one of you have told me that this has changed the way philanthropy works,' Clinton boasted.

But during the NPR interview, Bill Clinton stubbornly defended the Clinton Foundation, which the Clinton Global Initiative is a part of, as critics – including GOP nominee Donald Trump – have attacked the charity suggesting it was nothing but a pay-for-play gimmick to gain access to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state.

Hillary Clinton's own emails did reveal that State Department aides were responsive to Clinton Foundation donors, but no smoking gun was ever produced proving that the Clintons' allies successfully melded government policies.

Still, the foundation has become a political problem for the Democratic nominee, so much that she's skipping the annual confab.

WHO'S AT THE FINAL CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE Kazuo Hirai - CEO of Sony Corporation Sir Andrew Witty - CEO of GSK John Chambers - Executive Chairman of Cisco Paul Polman - CEO of Unilever Alice P. Albright - CEO of Global Partnership for Education Bob Collymore - CEO Safaricom Limited Scott Jackson - president and CEO of Global Impact Carolyn Tastad - Group President, North America, Proctor & Gamble Jason Bak - CEO Solar Alliance Karen Clark Cole - CEO Blink UX Åsa Skogström Feldt - CEO of The Hunger Project Rob Holzer - CEO of Matter Unlimited Tom Watson - president and founder of CauseWired Mario Ferro - co-founder and CEO of Wedu Global Aimée Christensen - founder and CEO of Christensen Global Strategies Ruth Rathblott - CEO and president of Harlem Educational Activities Fund Lynn Croneberger - CEO of SOS Children’s Villages Alex Counts - CEO of the American India Foundation Iain Douglas-Hamilton - founder of Save the Elephants Clare Twelvetrees - CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation Karim Samra - COO at the Hult Prize foundation Paul Chapman - CIO of Box Meagan Fallone - CEO Barefoot College International Bev Postma - CEO of HarvestPlus Advertisement

Instead Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton are front and center, alongside another former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

There are a handful of liberal celebrities also in attendance including U2's frontman Bono, who spoke about development alongside Albright during Monday morning's first main session.

Additionally, actor Ben Affleck will play a large role in later days. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi will be honored tonight. He's appeared alongside Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. David Bowie's widow, fashion model Iman, is also slated to appear.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was also spotted at the conference Monday morning.

But beyond that – the big name CEOs, the Republicans and other bold-faced names who had appeared at the conference in the past, which always starts the same day as the U.N. General Assembly – weren't on hand.

'In real life, if somebody tells a lie about you, and I find out it is [a lie], I like you more and them less,' Bill Clinton told NPR.

'In political life, if they just keep on smearing you – even if it all comes to nothing – people will like you less and won't hold anybody accountable for what they say,' the former president added.

With the Clinton Foundation negatively pulled into the presidential campaign, NPR's Steve Inskeep asked the former president if he regretted not cutting off support from foreign and corporate donors earlier.

'No,' Clinton replied. 'Because I thought it was presumptuous in the primary, but we've been working on this for about a year,' he said of the plans to stop those types of donations and for him to back away from the foundation, leaving it in daughter Chelsea Clinton's hands if Hillary Clinton wins the White House.

'The rules we had worked great when she was secretary of state because if we made a mistake you could appeal to the White House and the White House obviously didn't want anything to be done that shouldn't have been done, so that worked fine,' Bill Clinton said. 'But when you're president you have to make the last call.'

Daughter Chelsea Clinton, pictured at the opening of CGI in New York today, will take over the Clinton Foundation if her mom becomes president of the United States

Still yet, Bill Clinton seemed saddened by the fact that he had to give his Clinton Foundation up.

'It's hard, but, you know, if Hillary is elected I'm looking forward to it,' he said.

'I've had this job longer than I ever had any job, and I've loved it,' he said of his foundation work.

'And you know, we always say in response to our critics, that nobody in my family ever took a penny out of this foundation and put millions of dollars in. But I would have paid more to do this job. It was the most fun thing I've ever done,' he continued.

Clinton said he recognized that the reports of wrongdoing echoed louder in today's media climate.

'It's just a more negative environment,' he said.

The former president also suggested that his wife's email scandal – in which she used a secret server instead of a government network to conduct State Department business – was overblown.

'They're responding to the fact that this email thing was treated like the most important event since the end of World War II,' Clinton said.

'I wonder if there's a man in America that could have taken what she's been through in the last year and a half,' he added.

The Republican National Committee had a heyday with Clinton's NPR interview, though mistakenly claimed that this was the first CGI that Hillary Clinton had skipped.

She also didn't attend the confab last year.

The RNC's Reince Priebus said in a statement that Clinton's decision to sit this one out was 'another reminder of how badly compromised her presidency would be,' knocking the foundation for continuing to accept foreign donations.

Last month, the Clinton Foundation announced that it would ban foreign and corporate donations if Hillary Clinton won.

'The Clinton Foundation’s continued acceptance of foreign contributions while she runs for the White House is an unprecedented and unacceptable conflict of interest that undermines her ability to serve,' Priebus said. 'This is even more evident in light of Bill Clinton’s admission this morning that it was only "natural" for donors to ask for favors from Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

'The pattern of foundation donors and officials benefiting from access, favors and official actions by Clinton’s State Department is deeply troubling and deserves to be investigated by an independent special prosecutor,' Priebus continued.