A top aide to former President Bill Clinton told Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that “Bernie [Sanders] needs to be ground to a pulp.”
Joel Johnson provided this “friendly advice” to Podesta on Feb. 22, 2016, just as Hillary’s Democratic primary opponent seemed to be gaining ground on Clinton and threatening her presidential bid.
In an email released on Tuesday as part of the daily WikiLeaks installment, Johnson, who is now the managing director of the communications firm Glover Park Group, told Podesta to show “no mercy” to Sanders: “Bernie needs to be ground to a pulp. We can’t start believing our own primary bullshit. This is no time to run the general. Crush him as hard as you can. Other than that, hope all is well and congrats on Nevada!”
Johnson was a senior policy and communications advisor to Bill Clinton from 1999-2001. His aggressive advice to the Clinton campaign has surfaced in other WikiLeaks emails.
Just days after his Sanders email, he wrote to Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri asking, “Who’s in charge of the Trump swift boat project” — a reference to a Vietnam War veterans’ campaign against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.