Sen. Tom Cotton speaks during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18. | AP Photo Cotton: Clinton Foundation ban on foreign money if Clinton wins 2016 a 'fire sale'

The Clinton Foundation's decision to stop accepting foreign donations should Hillary Clinton win the election amounts to a "fire sale" for foreign governments seeking influence in the United States, Sen. Tom Cotton said in an interview on Tuesday morning.

The Arkansas Republican said that the only measure that will be effective would be to immediately ban overseas money to the charitable fund rather than a half-measure that Cotton argued is actually more harmful to the United States. He said that the "Clinton machine will be able to identify" who donated in the run-up to the election and then grant access next year.


"The Clinton Foundation should stop accepting foreign and corporate contributions immediately. Announcing that they won't accept them after the election is worse than doing nothing. Because they just declared to dictators and shady oligarchs there’s a fire sale before the election," Cotton said. "Every promise and pledge from the Clinton’s comes with an asterisk or a loophole. This gives anyone trying to buy favor with a Clinton White House 11 weeks to get their money in."

The foundation's ties to the State Department and Hillary Clinton have become a late-summer headache for the Democratic nominee, with emails showing donors to the organization sought access through the State Department. The Clinton campaign denies that Clinton ever took action based on donors to the campaign.

Donald Trump has called for a special prosecutor to look into the Clinton Foundation and has demanded the organization shut down. Cotton largely agrees with Trump, acknowledging that while the Clinton Foundation has helped poor people across the world, there are other charities that perform the same function.

"At a minimum they should stop accepting foreign and corporate contributions yesterday. I believe that the most prudent course of action is to close the foundation should she win and Bill Clinton to stop giving paid speeches as well," Cotton said in a telephone interview. "They have done a few good things when it comes to addressing poverty and disease. There are many other organizations and foundations that are more transparent."

A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation said that the organization is implementing its post-election donor restrictions in order to continue programs fighting famine in Africa and obesity in the United States.

"Nobody is presuming the outcome of the election, therefore implementing changes to programs before then would needlessly hurt people who are being helped by our charitable work around the world," said spokesman Craig Minassian.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been amended to remove a reference to the Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain as a donor to the Clinton Foundation. The prince has not donated to the foundation.