Clinton campaign mocks Catholics, Southerners, ‘needy Latinos’ in emails
By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Long before Hillary Clinton called millions of Americans a “basket of deplorables,” her top campaign advisers and liberal allies openly mocked Catholics, Southerners and a host of other groups, according to newly released emails that offer a stunning window into the vitriol inside the Clinton world less than a month before Election Day. The emails, published by WikiLeaks after a hack of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s private account, also show Clinton campaign officials and Democratic leaders disparaging supporters of Sen. Bernard Sanders as “self-righteous” whiners, calling Hispanic party leaders such as Bill Richardson “needy Latinos,” labeling CNN anchor Jake Tapper “a d—k” and even lambasting longtime Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal.
The sheer number of insults in the email trove has left the Clinton campaign, along with outside organizations such as the Center for American Progress that were routinely involved in the brutal bad-mouthing, unable or unwilling to respond. Instead, they have blamed the hack on Russia and have refused to even confirm that the emails are genuine, though they also haven’t denied their authenticity.
The Clinton campaign’s biggest problem may be its assault on Catholics. Prominent Catholic organizations called on Clinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri to resign after the surfacing of messages showing her making fun of the faith. The campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump seized on the opportunity to appeal to religious voters. “We call on Hillary Clinton to apologize and to fire the staff who have engaged in this vicious anti-Catholic bigotry. All of this shows who these people are at the core,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters on a conference call. “The American people need to know who they are and their very radical agenda that will be an assault on Catholics and all people of faith and good will.” The messages in question are part of an April 2011 email discussion between Ms. Palmieri and John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, which Mr. Podesta founded.
Mr. Podesta received each message but apparently did not respond. In the exchange, Mr. Halpin mocks media mogul Rupert Murdoch for raising his children in the Catholic faith and said the most “powerful elements” in the conservative movement are all Catholic.
“It’s an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy,” Mr. Halpin said.
“I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they become evangelicals,” Ms. Palmieri responded. “Excellent point,” Mr. Halpin wrote back. “They can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.” The advocacy group CatholicVote.org called on the Clinton campaign to fire Ms. Palmieri. “Hillary Clinton has already called half of her opponents’ supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’ and ‘irredeemable,’ and now it comes out that her campaign spokeswoman dismissively question[ed] the sincerity of Catholic Americans’ faith,” said Brian Burch, the group’s president. “Had Palmieri spoken this way about other groups, she [would be] dismissed. Palmieri must resign immediately or be fired.” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who is Catholic, also blasted the Clinton campaign. “If anything, these statements reveal the Clinton campaign’s hostile attitude toward people of faith in general,” Mr. Ryan said in a statement. “All Americans of faith should take a long, hard look at this and decide if these are the values we want to be represented in our next president. If Hillary Clinton continues to employ people with biased and bigoted views, it’s clear where her priorities are.”
Mr. Podesta and other officials have kept mum about the content of the emails and instead redirected attention toward Moscow, claiming Russian hackers are responsible for the entire incident as part of a broader effort to swing the Nov. 8 election to Mr. Trump.
The Center for American Progress took a similar tack Wednesday, refusing to defend the incendiary words of its president and other employees. “We will not comment on or authenticate the contents of the WikiLeaks releases except to say that this appears to be yet another illicit breach by the Russian government designed to influence the United States election, and we wish to have no part in furthering their mission,” a spokesperson for the Center for American Progress told The Washington Times. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the controversy by saying the hacks are being blamed on his country to whip up anti-Moscow hysteria and distract from the substance of the emails.
“They started this hysteria, saying that this [hacking] is in Russia’s interests. But this has nothing to do with Russia’s interests,” Mr. Putin said Wednesday. “It’s basically a way of manipulating public opinion, but for some reason nobody discusses that. They only talk about who did it.”
As for the substance itself, the email cache makes clear that Catholics were just one target of the Clinton campaign. In another brief exchange, Mr. Podesta and Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden slammed Southerners and the Miss America Pageant. “Do you think it’s weird that of the 15 finalists in Miss America, 10 came from the 11 states of the CSA?” Mr. Podesta asked, referring to the Confederate States of America. “Not at all I would imagine the only people who watch it are from the confederacy and by now they know that so they’ve rigged the thing in their honor,” Ms. Tanden responded in a September 2015 message.
In another email, Mr. Podesta asked why CNN’s Mr. Tapper is “such a d—k,” one of a number of examples of Clinton allies verbally assaulting reporters — though other messages show close coordination with influential reporters.
Mr. Podesta also had choice words for Mr. Blumenthal, proving that even fellow Clinton allies weren’t immune. In yet another exchange between Ms. Tanden and Mr. Podesta, the two traded criticisms of Mr. Blumenthal. Ms. Tanden complained that Mrs. Clinton was not doing well on the campaign trail, saying “that excitement thing you were worried about does seem to be a problem.” She then complained about Mr. Blumenthal finding his way back into the news, clearly touching a nerve with Mr. Podesta.
“It always amazes me that people like Sid either completely lack self awareness or self respect. Maybe both. Will you promise to shoot me if I ever end up like that?” Mr. Podesta responded in the May 2015 chain.
Although Hispanics have been key to Mrs. Clinton’s voting coalition, they, too, were demeaned by Clinton campaign officials. In an August 2015 message to other Clinton aides with the subject line “Needy Latinos and 1 easy call,” Mr. Podesta lays out a strategy for getting former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Energy Secretary Federico Pena and other leading Hispanic Democrats on board with Mrs. Clinton’s presidential bid.
Mr. Podesta also referred to Mr. Richardson as “a d—k” but said it would be valuable to have him as a surrogate.
Perhaps least surprisingly, the emails prove once again that the Clinton campaign had little respect for Mr. Sanders‘ supporters. Messages show clear coordination between Clinton aides and supposedly neutral officials such as the Democratic National Committee, including Donna Brazile, now the interim chairwoman.
Party leaders also worked with the Clinton campaign to trick Sanders backers into believing they had won concessions from the Democratic establishment. In a March 20 message, former party official Mark Alan Siegel is seen offering a plan to reduce the role of Democratic superdelegates in future elections. Although the proposal was sold to Sanders voters as an attempt to make the presidential nominating process more of a grass-roots endeavor, the email raises serious questions about whether the entire effort was just a smokescreen to assuage angry progressives.
“I’ve lived through many national conventions and have found that it’s critical that all delegates, especially those representing losing candidates, emerge from the convention feeling that they have won something, achieved something tangible,” Mr. Siegel wrote in the message to former Clinton chief of staff Tamera Luzzatto. “I think this is terribly important especially with people like Bernie’s sometimes self-righteous ideologues. We want them to go home happy and enthusiastic in working their asses off for Hillary.” Mr. Siegel went on to explain that by reducing the role of superdelegates in the future, Sanders supporters could claim a victory that would have no impact on the Clinton campaign’s victory in this cycle.
“Here’s my idea. Bernie and his people have been bitching about super delegates and the huge percentage that have come out for Hillary. … Why not throw Bernie a bone and reduce the super delegates in the future” to only elected Democrats? he wrote. “So if we ‘give’ Bernie this in the Convention’s rules committee, his people will think they’ve ‘won’ something from the Party Establishment. And it functionally doesn’t make any difference anyway. They win. We don’t lose. Everyone is happy.” The 716 voting superdelegates in the Democratic primary overwhelmingly supported Mrs. Clinton, drawing charges from Mr. Sanders and his backers that the entire process was unfair.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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 By Michael Sainato • 10/14/16 3:30pm
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 Clinton campaign 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 the DNC 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 and Democratic 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 whatever Hillary 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.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Wikileaks Releases Another 1,803 Podesta Emails In Part 12 Of Data Dump; Total Is Now 18,953
As a reminder among the most recent revelations we got further insights into Hillary's desire to see Obamacare "unravel", her contempt for "doofus" Bernie Sanders, staff exchanges on handling media queries about Clinton “flip-flopping” on gay marriage, galvanizing Latino support and locking down Clinton’s healthcare policy. Just as notable has been the ongoing revelation of just how "captured" the so-called independent press has been in its "off the record" discussions with John Podesta which got the head Politico correspondent, Glenn Thrush, to admit he is a "hack" for allowing Podesta to dictate the content of his article.
The release comes on the day of the third and final presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and as a result we are confident it will be scrutinized especially carefully for any last minute clues that would allow Trump to lob a much needed Hail Mary to boost his standing in the polls.
As there is a total of 50,000 emails, Wikileaks will keep the media busy over the next three weeks until the elections with another 30,000 emails still expected to be released.
One of the initially notable emails is the close relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Ukraine billionaire Victor Pinchuk, a prominent donor to the Clinton Foundation, in which we see the latter's attempt to get a meeting with Bill Clinton to show support for Ukraine:
From: Tina Flournoy Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 9:58:55 AM To: Amitabh Desai Cc: Jon Davidson; Margaret Steenburg; Jake Sullivan; Dan Schwerin; Huma Abedin; John Podesta Subject: Re: Victor Pinchuk
x
Team HRC - we'll get back to you on this
> On Mar 30, 2015, at 9:53 AM, Amitabh Desai wrote: > > Victor Pinchuk is relentlessly following up (including this morning) about a meeting with WJC in London or anywhere in Europe. Ideally he wants to bring together a few western leaders to show support for Ukraine, with WJC probably their most important participant. If that's not palatable for us, then he'd like a bilat with WJC. > > If it's not next week, that's fine, but he wants a date. I keep saying we have no Europe plans, although we do have those events in London in June. Are folks comfortable offering Victor a private meeting on one of those dates? At this point I get the impression that although I keep saying WJC cares about Ukraine, Pinchuk feels like WJC hasn't taken enough action to demonstrate that, particularly during this existential moment for the county and for him. > > I sense this is so important because Pinchuk is under Putin's heel right now, feeling a great degree of pressure and pain for his many years of nurturing stronger ties with the West. > > I get all the downsides and share the concerns. I am happy to go back and say no. It would just be good to know what WJC (and HRC and you all) would like to do, because this will likely impact the future of this relationship, and slow walking our reply will only reinforce his growing angst. > > Thanks, and sorry for the glum note on a Monday morning... We find more evidence of media coordination with Politico's Glenn Thrush who has an off the record question to make sure he is not "f**king anything up":
From:john.podesta@gmail.com To: gthrush@politico.com Date: 2015-04-30 17:06 Subject: Re: sorry to bother...
Sure. Sorry for the delay I was on a plane. On Apr 30, 2015 9:44 AM, "Glenn Thrush" wrote:
> Can I send u a couple of grafs, OTR, to make sure I’m not f**king > anything up? Another notable moment emerges in the emails, involving Hillary Clinton's selective memory. Clinton’s description of herself as a moderate Democrat at a September 2015 event in Ohio caused an uproar amongst her team. In a mail from Clinton advisor Neera Tanden to Podesta in the days following the comment she asks why she said this.
“I pushed her on this on Sunday night. She claims she didn't remember saying it. Not sure I believe her,” Podesta replies. Tanden insists that the comment has made her job more difficult after “telling every reporter I know she's actually progressive”. “It worries me more that she doesn't seem to know what planet we are all living in at the moment,” she adds. We also get additional insight into Clinton courting the Latino minority. A November 2008 email from Federico Peña, who was on the Obama-Biden transition team, called for a “Latino media person” to be added to the list of staff to appeal to Latino voters. Federico de Jesus or Vince Casillas are seen as ideal candidates, both of whom were working in the Chicago operations.
“More importantly, it would helpful (sic) to Barack to do pro-active outreach to Latino media across the country to get our positive message out before people start spreading negative rumors,” Peña writes. More to come.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
5. Transcripts from Hillary Clinton’s lucrative closed-door paid speeches delivered to elite financial firms and other special interests groups (which she has refused and failed to disclose to the public after much demand) have finally surfaced: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/927 (See Attachment)
8. Leaked private speech transcript shows Clinton’s warm ties to Wall Street’s most powerful figures: Clinton: “There is such a bias against people who have led successful and/or complicated lives” The pressure on officials to sell or divest assets in order to serve, she added, had become “very onerous and unnecessary”: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/927#efmDEMDKk
9. Leaked private speech to Goldman Sachs, Clinton: “Wall Street was only accountable for the financial crisis for political reasons. The blame placed on the United States banking system for the crisis “could have been avoided in terms of both misunderstanding and really politicizing what happened”: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/927#efmA2YA5Q
10. Leaked private speech, Clinton: US will “ring China with missile defense” and has right to rename Pacific Ocean the “American Sea”: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/927 (See attachment)
The trouble with this sort of mass scale corruption is that in an ideal society the media would report on such explosive issues and then all of America could see who Hillary is when she steps out into the spotlight.
However, it would seem that Hillary has extended her tentacles of corruption into the mainstream media and made sure that they don't report on the true issues that this country is facing, especially the issue of having such a corrupt politician as the head of the country.
All we can do to fix this issue is keep reporting the facts and spreading the word across America to expose who Hillary Clinton truly is. This is especially true when we are seeing many polls showing Hillary holding a lead over Trump in a number of swing states.
It's our job to do what we can to sway the American public to making the right choice this election season. If we don't who knows how long this treasonous list will be at the end of her four years in office.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The story not being discussed is Killary's cavalier attitude discussing a nuclear war with Russia at a presidential debate. What's more important to the brain dead American public? "Grab them by the pu $$y" or nuclear war with Russia? Nobody seems to care that what Killary was describing initiating a nuclear strike on Russia.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler