Corruption surrounding the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton's pay-to-play schemes have been under scrutiny for quite some time, yet the mainstream media have largely ignored this genuinely newsworthy issue. In the wake of mounting evidence against the Democratic nominee, however, it's become difficult for even the most liberal media personalities to continue turning a blind eye.

In fact, even leftist MSBNC host Lawrence O’Donnell and New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait acknowledged that rich people were able to get favors from Hillary Clinton in return for making a donation to her foundation and "it's just not the kind of public policy you really want your president to be having."

Of course Chait added the qualifier that the Clintons' dealings may not "necessarily be corrupt." The New York Magazine writer then said he believed former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and the Boston Globe's editorial in calling for a halt to Clinton Foundation donations were right [emphasis added]: 

Look, the purpose of the Clinton Foundation is a very positive one. The purpose is to leverage the thing with the Clintons into raising money for charity, but the problem is that it has a side effect and the side effect is that rich people who want the favor of the Clintons for any kind of public policy know that they can get that favor by giving money to the Clinton Foundation.  If you give money to the Clinton Foundation, then you're one of those people, then you're at the front of the line for a meeting, for a post, whatever it is you're after. Now, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily corrupt, but it's just not the kind of public policy you really want your — your president to be having and I think it's a bigger political problem than the Clinton campaign really seems to be aware of.

Newsbusters provides additional transcription and the segment clip featured above: 

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Jonathan, one of the points you make in your piece is that one of the reasons you suspect Hillary Clinton and the Clinton campaign don't understand the way this plays is that they believe that the Clintons have done nothing wrong, therefore, nothing really needs to be corrected, but your argument is about the perception of this. 

CHAIT: Well, it's the perception of this and the possibility for real conflicts to arise from this foundation and public policy and part of the problem is — as you just saw — their critics are often hysterical and they’re often hypocritical and Donald Trump is one of the most flamboyantly corrupt people to ever seek high office in the United States, so it’s easy for them to say as they are saying, well look at Donald Trump and look at all his problems. They’re so much bigger and they're right, but that can't be the standard that you hold yourself to. You just can't be much better than your opponents and you can't just rely on the fact your opponents go overboard, you need to look at yourself and you need to say are we doing everything the right way and in this instance, they're not. 

Chait was right in noting the hypocrisy at play among fellow liberals who criticize Donald Trump yet turn a blind eye to Hillary Clinton's long list of misdeeds -- but to say Trump's critics are "right" in their conclusion that Trump's alleged corruption "problems" are "so much bigger" than Hillary's? Really?

Trump has never before served in public office, let alone in a position as high-ranking as U.S. Senator or Secretary of State, thus he was never in a position to abuse such power -- to sell influence to some of the world's most corrupt and dangerous leaders and regimes. Trump never allowed Americans to perish in Benghazi. Trump never lied to Federal investigators or to Congress repeatedly, nor did he habitually mishandle classified information that could jeopardize America's security. 

Aside from allegations against Trump University and other lawsuits concerning his businesses -- more than half of which he brought himself as the plaintiff -- we're not sure how anyone with a grain of intellectual honesty could even compare the two candidates when it comes to the topic of corruption and abuse of power. But then, this is MSNBC...