Reprinted from Alternet
Don't believe a word Donald Trump says about getting money out of politics -- he's part of the problem, and his apparent bribe of Republican Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi highlights it.
Although this scandal has been overshadowed by all the drama surrounding Hillary Clinton having the flu, her emails, the Clinton Foundation, etc. -- it's actually a really big deal.
Here's the gist of what happened: Back in 2013, Bondi was thinking of joining a massive lawsuit against Trump University, which was accused of ripping off thousands of students.
Shortly after receiving a $25,000 campaign check from the Donald J. Trump foundation, however, Bondi decided not to join that lawsuit.
Bondi, of course, denies any wrongdoing, but no one in Florida is buying her excuses.
All three major Sunshine State newspapers -- the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel and the Tampa Bay Times -- have now called for a federal investigation into an incident that certainly looks like a classic case of quid-pro-quo corruption.
The Tampa Bay Times was especially tough in its call for a federal probe, arguing that since "The appearance of something more than a coincidence is too serious -- and the unresolved questions are too numerous -- to accept blanket denials by Bondi and Trump without more digging and an independent review."
Now, under normal circumstances, a scandal of this magnitude would be all over the news.
If Clinton, for example, were involved in anything like this, we'd never hear the end of it.
But because it's Trump, the whole story has slipped down the memory hole.
And that's despite the fact that the campaign donation that set off this scandal was itself illegal and worthy of a $2,500 fine for Trump breaking the law!
So what's going on here?
How is Trump able to weather a pay-to-play scandal that would probably doom another candidate?
The answer is simpler than you might think: Trump can survive this kind of scandal because being involved in this kind of scandal is a huge part of his appeal.
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