The Hillary Clinton campaign is issuing stand-down orders to one of the Democratic presidential candidates most dogged supporters.
“Chill out,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta wrote Saturday in a tweet to David Brock, a Clinton lapdog who heads the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record. Podesta was responding to a report from Politico that Brock is planning to air ads demanding that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders release his medical records.
Clinton, 68, released her medical records in July. With his demands of Sanders, Brock — like others in the Clinton orbit — hope to take the wind out of the sails of a surging Sanders campaign heading into the Iowa caucuses. Sanders’ age — he is 74 — is seen as a liability for his White House prospects. (RELATED: David Brock Wants Bernie Sanders’ Medical Records)
.@davidbrockdc: Chill out. We're fighting on who would make a better President, not on who has a better Physical Fitness Test.
— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) January 17, 2016
The public rebuke of Brock is an odd sight, especially since Correct the Record essentially works as an unofficial arm of the Clinton campaign. Brock’s group is allowed to coordinate directly with the Clinton campaign, which gave Correct the Record $270,000 in June. Brock, a former conservative journalist who cozied up to the Clintons in the 2000s, frequently appears on TV to defend Clinton.
Brock responded to Podesta’s tweet late Saturday night, asserting that Politico’s report is “false.”
“We are not planning an attack on this and have not even discussed it internally,” Brock said in a statement.
My statement regarding Sen. Sanders' health records: pic.twitter.com/uC7n8aHjP9
— David Brock (@davidbrockdc) January 17, 2016
The Sanders campaign says that the candidate will release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses, and that that had been the plan all along.
Given the close alliance between Brock and the Clinton campaign, many political observers doubted the sincerity of Podesta’s tweet and Brock’s denial.
What? Podesta chairs HRC’s campaign. Brock is her attack dog. Is this real or plausible deniability? https://t.co/bpj31mIFLq
— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) January 17, 2016
1). Brock isn't doing this without Clinton's blessing. 2). Podesta wouldn't comment publicly if he meant it. Cynical and disingenuous.
— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) January 17, 2016
i guess maybe because brock is so widely seen as, uh, bad, it makes sense to have him float the nastier trial balloons
— libby watson (@libbycwatson) January 17, 2016
it's so weird that Podesta doesn't have Brock's phone number so he had to @ him publicly instead https://t.co/Wz7miofn4f
— Brandt (@UrbanAchievr) January 17, 2016