Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff circulated a memo on how to best make the Democratic presidential primary debates work in their favor, according to leaked emails published online by WikiLeaks.
Clinton campaign staffers circulated a memo in April 2015 by chair John Podesta that argues the number of debates should be kept limited, should be aired late in the evening and during the first four primary contests.
Podesta also wanted to keep the debates “multicandidate” so the focus won’t all fall on Clinton’s performance against an individual primary opponent.
Democratic strategist and Clinton campaign chief administrative officer sent Podesta’s memo to staffers in April 2015 along with a pre-released copy of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) debate schedule announcement.
The DNC did not not publicly release the number of debates it would have until May 2015.
Podesta’s memo gives an inside look into how the Clinton campaign wanted to minimize her appearance in debates to strangle plans by her primary opponents, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a venue to gain name recognition and go after her on the debate stage.
Here’s what Podesta wrote about the number of debates:
“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); 4) create a schedule that would allow the later debates to be cancelled if the race is for practical purposes over; 5) encourage an emphasis on local issues and local media participants in the debate formats; and 6) ensure a format that provides equal time for all candidates and does not give the moderator any discretion to focus on one candidate.”
While the Clinton campaign wanted fewer debates, crammed into a narrower range of dates, other campaigns wanted the opposite, according to Podesta’s memo.
“The other campaigns have advocated (not surprisingly) for more debates and for the schedule to start significantly earlier,” Podesta wrote in his 2015 memo.
“Mo and Anita believe that this announcement prior to the actual entry into the race of other candidates will strengthen their hand as they lock a schedule in with local media partners and state parties,” he wrote.
“Mo” likely refers to strategist Mo Elleithee and former White House communications director Anita Dunn. Dunn was criticized in 2009 for saying her favorite political philosopher was Mao Tse Tung — the communist dictator of China.
Podesta’s memo was attached to an email that was one of thousands released by WikiLeaks from the Democratic power-broker’s hacked Gmail account. So far, four tranches of thousands of emails have been made public.
One of the leaked emails suggest now-DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile shared debate questions with the Clinton campaign.
“From time to time I get the questions in advance,” Brazile wrote in a March 12, 2015 email to Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri.
“Here’s one that worries me about HRC,” Brazile wrote, referring to a question on the death penalty that was going to be asked in CNN’s town hall debate during the Democratic presidential primary.
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