The Wikileaks Wednesday email hack of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta has revealed one message from Podesta with the following subject line: “Needy Latinos and 1 easy call.”
Podesta’s August 2015 email proceeds to suggest that Hillary Clinton reach out to Federico Peña, a former Secretary of Energy and Secretary of Transportation under Bill Clinton and also a former mayor of Denver, and to Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico and another former Secretary of Energy under Bill Clinton. (In 2008, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for President.) The full email can be read here on Wikileaks (the “easy call” was former South Carolina governor Governor Jim Hodges), but here are some unedited excerpts of what that email contained regarding Peña and Richardson:
A few calls you might consider making:
1) Fedrico Pena.
Ken Salazar who has been an absolute trooper really wants to get Fedrico Pena on board. I talked to Pena early, before March and he hemmed and hawed. Ken had lunch with him early this week and reports the following, he’s close to committing but carrying some baggage. Fed never said this to me but he confided to Ken that his Cabinet stints ripped up his family, he gave everything to the cause and no time to his family, he went through a messy divorce in the late 90’s and was left really down and felt like no one reached out to him then so he felt pretty cut off from Clinton World. In 07, the only candidate that asked for his support was Obama, so he endorsed. (by the way, not sure any of this is factually accurate, but this is how he is feeling). His life now revolves around his new wife, Cindy, who is a supporter of yours and came to the fundraiser at the Chambers house. He kind of wants to be with you, but this stuff is still grinding on him. Ken suggests a call to him and was very explicit about making the following four points: 1) you really enjoyed seeing Cindy at the Chambers event and appreciate her support. 2) ask him how he’s been doing 3) ask about his views on the race and what she should be doing in Colorado 4) ask that he consider publicly supporting you. On balance, I recommend making this call as much because it’s important to Ken who has been great.
This is what the Podesta email said about Richardson:
2) Bill Richardson. I had heard that you were upset that I encouraged a call between WJC and Richardson to bury the hatchet. I did that at the request of Jose Villarreal who pushed me and made the point that Richardson is still on TV a lot, especially on Univision and Telemundo and not withstanding the fact that he can be a dick, it was worth getting him in a good place. He had a good conversation with the President and has been good in his interviews since. I have pressed Bill, but I think it will take a call from you to get a formal endorsement. He’s on Meet the Press on Sunday. Probably worth a quick call to ask him to stay stout and publicly endorse, but if it’s too galling, don’t bother.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the FBI “suspects Russian intelligence agencies are behind the recent hacking of the emails.” Podesta is also blaming the Russians for the hack.
When asked about the Podesta leaks on Wednesday, here is what Clinton communications director Jen Palmieri said, according to ABC News: “The Russians orchestrated this hack. We believe, as noted by the Director of National Intelligence, that they’re also behind the timing and manner of the leaks, and we’re not going to do any more to comment or aid their efforts.”
The allegation is that the Ruskies also alter the content of the documents they release to manipulate