Bill Clinton accuses Trump of using charity money to ‘pay off’ Pam Bondi

Former President Bill Clinton defended his family’s foundation and took a shot at Donald Trump in the process Wednesday at a rally in Orlando, telling the crowd that Trump “attacked my foundation. He uses his foundation's money to pay off your attorney general."

Appearing solo at a campaign stop for his wife, Clinton took advantage of the Florida setting to criticize a $25,000 donation Trump’s foundation made to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at the same time that she was considering a fraud investigation into Trump University. Bondi ultimately opted against joining the multi-state probe into Trump’s much-maligned real estate seminar, and Trump was recently forced to pay a $2,500 fine to the IRS for making a political contribution through a tax-exempt charitable group.


But the fine did not address the pay-to-play allegations that Clinton raised Wednesday, a reversal of sorts for the Democrats’ campaign for president, which has found itself mostly on the receiving end of such charges. The Trump campaign, trailing for weeks in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s post-convention bump, has clawed its way back into the race recently at least in part because of attacks, fed by fresh email releases, against the former secretary of state that she offered improved access to Clinton Foundation donors.

The former president also attacked Trump over his immigration policy, suggesting that the U.S. should “quit making a political issue out of our diversity” and unlock America’s economic potential by passing a “sensible immigration reform bill.” Addressing perhaps the best-known plank of Trump’s immigration platform, Clinton said, “we don’t need to build a wall across the border. We need to build a bridge to tomorrow and let every law-abiding person walk across it.”

Clinton also worked in a riff on Trump’s “make America great again” slogan, framing the Manhattan billionaire as a political snake oil salesman unlikely to make good on his promises.

“Saying you’re going to make America great again is like me saying I’d like to be 20 again,” he said. “Actually, I would. But I wouldn’t vote for anybody who promised to make me 20 again.”