During a January 31 discussion of a New York Times article reporting on former President Bill Clinton's September 2005 trip to Kazakhstan with Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson claimed that Clinton was able personally to “get rich,” when in fact the Times reported that after the trip Giustra donated money to Clinton's foundation. The Times did not report that Clinton received money for himself. Carlson stated: “Bill Clinton, the former president, out there, contravening official American foreign policy on behalf of some anti-democratic dictator so his buddy can get rich and he can get rich as a result? It's like unbelievable.” Later, when nationally syndicated radio host Ed Schultz described Clinton as “one of the most popular people in the world,” Carlson replied, “Also one of the greediest.”

The January 31 Times article reported that in 2006, Giustra made a $31.3 million donation to the William J. Clinton Foundation and that more recently, Giustra publicly pledged to give Clinton's foundation an additional $100 million. A December 20, 2007, New York Times article on donors to the Clinton Foundation noted that the $31.3 million donation was made by the Radcliffe Foundation, which Giustra runs, and that in 2007, “Mr. Giustra announced separate plans to give the Clinton Foundation $100 million, plus half of his future earnings from natural resource business ventures, for a joint project to spur economic growth in poor Latin American mining communities.”

Indeed, despite Carlson's statement that Clinton could “get rich as a result” of the trip to Kazakhstan, Carlson himself noted several times during the segment that Giustra's donations were to Clinton's foundation, not to Clinton himself.

From the January 31 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

CARLSON: Still to come, when he's not stumping for his wife, Bill Clinton is out there raising money for his personal foundation. Now one of those deals is raising eyebrows. We'll tell you what it is in just a minute. But first, here's a look at your headlines.

[...]

CARLSON: Bill Clinton entwined with a shady donor. No, this is not a flashback to the '90s, though often it seems that way. It's a story from the front page of today's New York Times. It's an amazing story that includes Canadian mining tycoons, Third World dictators, uranium deals in Kazakhstan, and hundreds of millions of dollars. Here to parse the details, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan and the host of the nationally syndicated Ed Schultz Show, Ed Schultz.

Ed, this is actually an unbelievable story. And the bottom line is, here, let me outline very quickly: Bill Clinton goes to Kazakhstan with a friend of his who owns a mining company or series of mining companies in Canada. They show up and Bill Clinton basically charms the president of Kazakhstan, sufficient that he gives this uranium deal to Bill Clinton's friends, and in return Bill Clinton gets $31.3 million for his foundation and a pledge of $100 million more. Here's the quote from The New York Times that I think is going to hurt his wife's campaign: “Mr. Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader's bid to head an international organization that monitors elections and supports democracy. Mr. Clinton's public declaration undercut both American foreign policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan's poor human rights record by, among others, Mr. Clinton's wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.”

Bill Clinton, the former president, out there, contravening official American foreign policy on behalf of some anti-democratic dictator so his buddy can get rich and he can get rich as a result? It's like unbelievable.

SCHULTZ: Well, the bar talk on this would be Bill Clinton just loves to be the man. He loves to -- he loves to be in the action. In the minutiae of this whole story, Tucker, Democrats are out there saying, OK, hold the phone here. Is this the way it's going to be? Is this the kind of stuff we're going to have to put up with? They got to mop this thing up and they got to do it fast. To Bill Clinton's credit, he is disassociating himself; he's cutting a lot of ties. I know he's very good friends with Ron Burkle; they've done a lot of things together. In fact, I've been out at Ron Burkle's place, quite the digs, let me tell you. And they're good friends. But I think Bill Clinton is doing the best he can to disassociate himself. But, you know, when you're one of the most popular people in the world, you're going to be involved in deals like this. They come to you. They seek you out.

CARLSON: Also one of the greediest. Listen to this, Pat. “Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton's charitable foundation received its owned windfall: $31.3 million [donation] from Mr. Giustra” -- Clinton's friend from Canada -- “that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. That gift, combined with more recent and public pledges to give the foundation an additional hundred million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton's inner circle.” A hundred million?