Should foreign nationals and nations be allowed to donate to US political campaigns?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that what Bill Clinton revealed today is the list of donors to his foundation. Political contributions in this country are all public record. You can look them up online, but something like a foundation does not have that disclosure rule. One of the stipulations in Hillary’s Sec. of State appointment is that Bill disclose all this to show any potential conflicts of interest.

That said, you raise an interesting point of whether campaign contributions should be allowed from abroad. I think they should. People all over have a stake in what happens here and don’t get to vote. As long as everything’s public, a politician would need to be willing to be seen taking the money i.e. no big contributions from Osama just yet.

You are absolutely right, @kfinger. Should have asked, “Should foreign nationals and nations be allowed to donate to US politicians?”

Bill Clinton was no longer a politician when these funds were donated. The purpose of the Clinton Foundation is philanthropic, not political. There are strict laws forbidding campaign contributions from foreign nationals because American politicians shouldn’t be beholden to foreign interests, but that’s an entirely different matter from foreigners donating to an organization dedicated to charitable work.

The current concern only arises because Hillary may now be in a position to influence policy toward the nations that have contributed to Clinton’s foundation. But we can’t realistically legislate against foreigners contributing to US charities because of this one particular circumstance.

Aside from what Clinton said or did today, foreign nationals might try to manipulate our system, However it’s OK for foreign bankers to pay American lobbyists millions to manipulate our system-that’s the American way.

Exactly, if you have a charitable foundation, ANYONE should be able to donate to it, regardless of whether you were/are a politician.

Is it possible to keep foreign nationals from giving to American politicians? Seems to me it would be trivially easy to launder the money through a friendly supporter of the politician.