Rigged Debates: Wikileaks Emails Confirm Media in Clinton’s Pocket
Clinton's people asked for all sorts of special treatment from the DNC and the press—and they got it
Hillary
Clinton embraces campaign chair John Podesta on October 12,
2011 in Washington, DC. Chip
Somodevila/Getty Images)
On
October 12, WikiLeaks released
part four and five of Clinton campaign
Chair John Podesta’s emails,
with part six to be released on October 13, and part seven to follow
on October 14.
“As
soon as the nomination is wrapped up, I will be your biggest
surrogate,” current Interim Chair of the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) Donna Brazile, wrote to Podesta in a January
2016 email.
As a Vice Chair of the DNC, Brazile was bound to neutrality per the
charter, but as shown in several emails released so far, that was not
the case.
“I
pushed back hard on this, and Axe. So weird to attack the kids the
night before the first primary,” Brazile wrote in an email she
forwarded to Podesta about what CNN was doing while she served as a
CNN contributor.
On
October 10, an email was released that showed Brazile tipping off
the Clintoncampaign
to an outreach campaign being conducted by the Sanders campaign.
Brazile defended herself on Twitter claiming she also sent
the Sanders campaign
“advice,” but did not release or cite any examples.
On
October 11, Mediaite’s Jordan Chariton first reported another
email that showed Brazile tipping off the Clinton campaign
to a question on the death penalty that would be asked at a CNN Town
Hall the next day. Brazile was a CNN contributor at the time, and
that wasn’t her only helpful tip. “For the debate team,” she
wrote in a March email about
the Voting Rights Act, forwarded to Podesta.
In
2013, during an interview with
ABC News, Brazile said, “if Clinton gets
in the race, there will be a coronation of her,” foreshadowing that
she and the rest of theDNC and Democratic
Party would
line up behind Hillary
Clinton as
the nominee before a single person voted in the Democratic primaries.
In
a March 2016 email,
Mark Alan Siegel, a former New York State Assemblyman
andDemocratic official,
advised the Clinton campaign
staff to offer Bernie
Sanders and
his supporters a reduction in future super delegates to pacify them.
“So if we ‘give’ Bernie this in the Convention’s rules
committee, his people will think they’ve ‘won’ something from
the Party Establishment,” he wrote. “And it functionally doesn’t
make any difference anyway. They win. We don’t lose. Everyone is
happy.”
Neera
Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress which
publishes Think
Progress,
wrote in a January 2016 email,
“But I should say that I would do whateverHillary needs
always. I owe her a lot. And I’m a loyal soldier.”
An
April 2015 email describes
the Clinton campaign
and DNC coordinating to rig the debate schedule
for Clinton’s benefit.
The debate schedule was a commonly cited criticism against then-DNC
Chair Debbie
Wasserman Schultz,
who resigned after the WikiLeaks release of DNC emails
in July showed her overt favoritism for Clinton all through the
primaries.
“Through
internal discussions, we concluded that it was in our interest to: 1)
limit the number of debates (and the number in each state); 2) start
the debates as late as possible; 3) keep debates out of the busy
window between February 1 and February 27, 2016 (Iowa to South
Carolina)” read the email from Charlie Baker, a senior advisor to
the Clinton campaign
from the Dewey Square Group. “The other campaigns have advocated
(not surprisingly) for more debates and for the schedule to start
significantly earlier.”
An email from
November 2014 shows Clinton campaign
staff backing a law that would push the Illinois primary from March
to April or May, with their reasoning being that the state could
potentially serve as a lifeline to moderate Republicans as it did for
Mitt Romney in 2012. “The Clintons won’t forget what their
friends have done for them. It would be helpful to feel out what
path, if any, we have to get them to yes. This will probably take
some pushing,” wrote Clinton Campaign
Manager Robby Mook to Podesta. The primary wound
up not being moved, with Trump winning Illinois, but the push was
strategic as Clinton didn’t poll well against moderate Republicans
such as Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. John Kasich.
In damage
control over a false statement Clinton made about Nancy Reagan’s
role in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Clinton campaign noted in an email
chain that
they would have to coerce Clinton into admitting she was wrong. “Here
is a revised draft of a statement. It does include the words ‘I
made a mistake’ in the first line. We need a strategy for getting
her to approve this.”
And
then there’s the overly docile press, who were so eager to help
Clinton get elected. In one email
chain discussing
the upcoming release of exchanges between Clinton and writer Sidney
Blumenthal, insiders noted that the Associated Press appeared to be
willing to allow the Clinton campaign to plant favorable
stories. “[T]hey are considering placing a story with a friendly at
the AP (Matt Lee or Bradley Klapper), that would lay this out before
the majority on the committee has a chance to realize what they have
and distort it,” wrote Nick Merrill, the Clinton campaign’s
traveling press secretary.
“She
is going to read me the story later today off the record to further
assure me,” Clinton campaign Communications Director Jennifer
Palmieri wrote in an email to
Podesta and other staff about New
York Times‘
Maggie Haberman coordinating directly with the campaign to provide
Clinton with favorable coverage.
In
March 2015, an email from Clinton campaign
manager assistant Marissa Astor provides some options for when a
story in the AP will be published, with a statement from Clinton and
Q&A regarding her private email server, in addition to an option
to “pre-negotiate” a TV interview.
An
April 2015 email from Clinton staff
issued a press policy that says, “Less than 100 people – NO cell
phones, NO press.” According to the email, events with over 100
people, cell phones are allowed, “and ONE print pooler will be
escorted in for her remarks only and then escorted out. NO tv
cameras. Over 500 people in a public space – YES cell phones, OPEN
press (all press access including tv cameras). At fundraisers in
private homes NO tv cameras no matter the size. ONE print pooler
only.” According to the email, Hillary Clinton approved the policy.
“Huma spoke to HRC and she agreed with this plan,” wrote Kristina
Schake, the Clinton campaign deputy communications director.
In
a January 2015 email,
in response to an inquiry as to whether the Clinton staff
have any diversity they can point to, political consultant Jim
Margolis jokes, “Robby claims he’s 1/16th Apache, so we should be
all set.”
Part
four, five, six, and seven brings the total WikiLeaks release
of Podesta emails to around 10,000 out of about 50,000.
http://observer.com/2016/10/rigged-debates-wikileaks-emails-confirm-media-in-clintons-pocket/
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