For the second time in less than a month Politico chief political correspondent Glenn Thrush has been caught sending stories to Hillary Clinton staffers for approval.
Thrush sent an email to Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri on April 17, 2015 with the subject line: “pls read asap — the [Jennifer Palmieri] bits — don’t share.” This was revealed in Thursday’s WikiLeaks release of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails. It is included in Podesta’s emails as Palmieri shared the email with several other Clinton staffers, including campaign manager Robby Mook and Podesta.
The eight paragraphs that Thrush sent Palmieri were filled with glowing sentences about her. She wrote in the forwarded email to Clinton staffers, “He did me courtesy of sending what he is going to say about me. Seems fine.”
The paragraphs about Palmieri ended up largely unchanged in the column, “Quiet, please. Hillary’s running,” a piece focused on Clinton’s press strategy.
In a previous email chain released by WikiLeaks, Thrush asked Podesta to look over a portion of a story pertaining to him. The Politico reporter in the email called himself a “hack” and said “please don’t share.”(RELATED: Politico Reporter Sends Story To Hillary Aide For Approval, Admits He’s A ‘Hack’)
In another email released by WikiLeaks, Thrush practically apologized to Podesta for the “human impact” of a “shitty” story he had written. (RELATED: Thrush Says He Takes No Pleasure In His ‘Sh**ty’ Stories In Podesta Email)
The Daily Caller has asked Politico if they stand by what seems to be a habitual practice by Thrush of asking Clinton staffers for approval. Politico spokesman Brad Dayspring said: “Politico’s policy is to not share editorial content pre-publication except as approved by editors. In this case the reporter was trying to ensure the accuracy of biographical details, and as such shared a couple of paragraphs that included those details from a much larger story (which was not shared). There were no substantive changes to the piece.”
Dayspring added, “There’s no approval implied anywhere in that exchange. He sent her read-back because she wasn’t answer[sic] calls, and wanted to make sure he got details right.”
The Daily Caller asked Politico if Thrush’s actions were so innocent why did he ask both Palmieri and Podesta not to share what he was doing. Thrush replied, “because I was working around the press office — Fallon et al – and didn’t want people knowing I was talking directly to campaign officials.”