The Clintons Criticize Companies That Have Donated to Their Foundation

Companies defend their work with the Clinton Foundation.

ByABC News
May 3, 2016, 8:20 PM

— -- Hillary Clinton rails against big businesses’ taking advantage of corporate tax loopholes in her stump speeches. But despite a barrage of attack lines on the campaign trail, some of the same companies she has criticized are longtime donors to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

Pfizer and Johnson Controls have borne the brunt of such attacks from Hillary Clinton and her most influential campaign surrogate, former President Bill Clinton, after each company announced separate mergers that would take chunks of their businesses overseas to Ireland.

As the Democratic front-runner pursues her bid for the White House, she has proposed a penalty tax for companies that leave the United States after receiving taxpayer dollars to stay afloat, even calling out Johnson Controls on the debate stage.

"They came and got part of the bailout because they were an auto parts supplier. Now they want to move some of their headquarters to Europe. They're going to have to pay an exit fee,” Clinton said at the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, in March. “We’re going to stop this job exporting, and we’re going to start importing and growing jobs again in our country.”

Clinton even released an official campaign ad in February where she stood in front of Johnson Controls headquarters in Wisconsin and accused them of “gaming the system.”