What's the Difference Between the Clinton and Trump Foundation Scandals?

On MSNBC, Eric Boehlert “calls out” the media for a double standard with regards to coverage of the Clinton Foundation and the Trump Foundation. MediaMatters has a video and a transcript, but here’s the meat of what Boehlert said.

Previously Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today all wrote editorials: “you have to shut down the Clinton Foundation.” Not because they’ve done anything wrong. It just doesn’t look good. Now we’ve got Trump sending $25,000 checks to get investigations shut down. Where are those editorials, right? Where is that thunder?

I think the average human being might be able to see a pretty big difference between what the two foundations are accused of doing. The Trump Foundation may or may not have sent $25,000 to get an investigation shut down. Yes, that’s bad, and the media actually has raked him over the coals a bit for it. We here at RedState have written about it a few times.

Now, that is a very bad and a very serious accusation, but what the Clinton Foundation is accused of doing goes way, way beyond that. She is accused of taking millions from nations and world leaders for access to her. Entire U.S. diplomatic policies could have been influenced by a single donation. Trump (thankfully?) does not and did not have access to the inner workings of the U.S. government’s executive branch.

Then there’s the fact that Hillary has refused to give the media pretty much any access whatsoever. For all his faults, Trump has pretty much been open before the press (often to his own detriment) while Hillary has regarded them with contempt, and the media has started to actually fall out of love with her. They haven’t picked up any love for her opponent, but you’ve seen the polls: she’s losing ground.

This isn’t the media having a double-standard so much as them realizing how big the story is, for once. The kind of access people (allegedly) were allowed to buy is pretty significant, and way more mind-blowing than what Trump (allegedly) did. The kinds of repercussions it could have are pretty significant.