Hacked e-mails show Clinton campaign’s fears about Sanders
WASHINGTON ( AP) — Allies of Hillary Clinton felt threatened by the power of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ candidacy and wondered about getting some signal of support from US President Barack Obama in the heat of the Democratic primaries, according to the latest e-mails in a hacked trove from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Ahead of the Illinois primary in March, liberal operative Neera Tanden asked Podesta, who formerly worked on Obama’s transition in 2008, if the president could give any kind of indication that he was supporting Clinton over Sanders.
Tanden asked Podesta whether Obama could “even hint of support of Hillary before Tuesday?”
Obama stayed officially neutral in the primaries until Clinton clinched the nomination in June.
Tanden wrote: “Maybe they don’t want to do this, but the stakes are pretty damn high in this election for him.”
The e-mail exchange was contained in more than 1,500 emails released Wednesday by the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks.
The notes were stolen from the e- mail account of Podesta as part of a series of highprofile computer hacks of Democratic targets that US intelligence officials said were orchestrated by Russia, with the intent to influence the Nov. 8 election. Russia has denied the allegations.
In a separate June 2015 email, the Clinton campaign worried that some state affiliates of the nation’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, were set to endorse Sanders even though the national union had not yet made an endorsement.