Allies of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are grumbling about the Clinton Foundation meeting in New York, noting that the charity has been a burden for the candidate rather than a bonus.

Politico reports:

“They would have been better off postponing it this year,” said one member of the Democratic National Committee and a Clinton ally. “The foundation has been a negative this year, with concerns about donors seeking influence and access — why shine light on it right before the debate?”

The criticism comes as Bill Clinton prepares to mount a defense of the “charity” in a speech at the final day of the Clinton Foundation’s meeting in New York. Politico notes:

The former president views the final glitzy meeting of his Clinton Global Initiative — which he will address on Wednesday in an emotional farewell — as his last big opportunity to counter accusations that the philanthropy served as a vehicle for wealthy foreign donors to curry access with his wife’s State Department.

The Clinton Foundation has been on the defensive ever since 2015, when the Government Accountability Institute and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer investigated its use as an alleged vehicle for bribery and self-enrichment, especially during Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State. Evidence from newly-released emails has only confirmed the thesis first laid out in Clinton Cash — namely, that the Clintons helped donors to their foundation gain special favors from the government. In some cases, as in the sale of 20% of U.S. uranium to a Russian company, those favors damaged America’s national interest.

Instead of being a showcase for Hillary Clinton’s philanthropy, the Clinton Foundation has become Exhibit A of her penchant for corruption, cronyism and cover-ups. During the entire Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which painted the rest of the Clintons’ lives in glowing terms, the Clinton Foundation was not mentioned a single time from the stage.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.