Elections

Emails Shows Clinton Campaign Discussing ‘Trump Swift Boat Project’

(Photos: Getty Images)

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

An email released on Monday by WikiLeaks shows members of the Hillary Clinton campaign discussing a “Trump swift boat project” with a political strategist with longstanding ties to the Clintons.

“I know you can’t look past Bernie and March primaries — but who is in charge of the Trump swift boat project?” Joel Johnson, the managing director of Glover Park Group, strategic communications firm, wrote in a Feb. 26 email to Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

“Needs to be ready, funded and unleashed when we decide — but not a half assed scramble,” he added.

Palmieri responded, sarcastically: “Gee. Thanks, Joel. We thought we could half-ass it. Let’s discuss.”

The email was hacked illegally from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s Gmail account.

“Swift boat” is a reference to the organized political attack on John Kerry’s military service during the 2004 presidential campaign. A group of Kerry opponents calling themselves the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth aired ads calling the then-Massachusetts senator’s Vietnam service into question.

“Swiftboating” has become a catch-all term for organized political attacks that rely on information culled from a candidate’s past.

Trump underwent a swiftboating of sorts starting last month after the release of footage from 2005 of him speaking in vulgar terms about women with ex-NBC host Billy Bush. Numerous women have come forward since then accusing Trump of sexually harassing and, in some cases, sexually assaulting them.

Some observers have asserted that the onslaught is a coordinated political effort. There has not been any proof yet that it was.

Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook was asked on Sunday if the campaign has been in touch with any of Trump’s accusers. He said he was “not aware” whether any have been.

Reached for comment, Johnson of Glover Park Group said his email was a reference to opposition research in general.

“My way of saying oppo research,” he told The Daily Caller. “Usual unsolicited advice from outside.”

Johnson, who worked in the Bill Clinton White House, did not respond to a follow-up question about whether he knew of any specific opposition research, especially regarding any of Trump’s accusers.

Follow Chuck on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel