Hillary campaign wanted DNC to “play ball” with them 10 months before primaries

In a short e-mail exchange on March 27, 2015 Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robbie Mook wrote Mrs. Clinton and said:

I am distressed that DWS [Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair] hired a convention CEO without consulting us after Charlie [Baker] and I both told them repeatedly that we expected to be consulted – and we were under the impression they would. They didn’t consult the White House either.

Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta
Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta

Mrs. Clinton replied to Mook and John Podesta, her campaign chair, and said:

Clearly, the WH [White House] either didn’t care or didn’t weigh in. Probably the former.

This is clear evidence that the Hillary Clinton campaign expected to have significant input on DNC decisions long before the first Democratic primary was held. In his e-mail to Mrs. Clinton and John Podesta, the chairman of her presidential campaign, Mook went on to say:

Madame [sic] Secretary, I’m not going to call anyone or say anything until you have your conversation with DWS, but this concerns me a lot. John – you, Charlie and I may need to sit down with Debbie to make clear how we want things to change/improve before we are willing to consider playing ball with them.

Unlike Mook, the Hillary-supportive CBS drama “Madam Secretary” uses the correct spelling of “madam”. The use of “madame” instead of “madam” either indicates ignorance, or that Mook is using the French version or the word . “Probably the former”, as Mrs. Clinton said in a different context above 🙂

An e-mail to Mook with a request for clarification of both his and Mrs. Clinton’s comments went unaswered at the time of publication of this article. The Guardian asked Mook:

1/ For what reason(s) did Mrs. Clinton think that the WH “didn’t care” about who the convention CEO was?

2/ Your e-mail exchange was two weeks before Mrs. Clinton announced that she would run, so who was the “us” group of people (henceforth “the group”) you were referring to at that time?

3/ What did you mean when you spoke about the group being “willing to consider playing ball with them”? What does “play ball” mean to you in this context, given that this was long before the primaries.

John Podesta is former a high-ranking assistant to president Obama, and the former White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton. Mook is a political operative, and is the first openly gay manager of a major presidential campaign.

Debbie does Hillary: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (DWS) and Hillary Clinton hugging, twelve days after DWS had to step down as DNC head. This after leaked documents showed that the DNC has laid its finger on the scale for Hillary over Bernie during the primaries.

As always, the Guardian reports and the readers decide.

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