Clinton adviser Neera Tanden, president of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, called Media Matters founder David Brock a “Republican plant” in a January email to John Podesta, according to a WikiLeaks release Monday.
“Maybe he actually is a republican plant,” Tanden wrote. “Hard to think of anything more counter productive than demanding Bernie’s medical records.”
The email referred to Brock’s decision to call for Sen. Bernie Sanders to release his medical records within 16 days, asserting that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton already released her medical information, and Sanders should follow suit.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta quickly tweeted out his disapproval of the attack. “@DavidBrockDC chill out,” Podesta tweeted in January, 2016. “We’re fighting on who would make a better President, not on who has a better Physical Fitness Test.”
Tanden’s response to the Brock attack is interesting, particularly since Campaign Manager Bobby Mook and Podesta repeatedly strategized about how best to use Brock as an attack dog against the book, “Clinton Cash.”
“Can we communicate with Brock about getting a copy of this Clinton Cash book?” Mook wrote in March, 2015. “We need it very urgently if possible.”
Podesta praised Brock’s attack dog status concerning attacking statements in “Clinton Cash,” saying that it “feels like what Brock is good at.”
The next day, Podesta asked about how to attack the book, “shouldn’t we attack the book or get Brock to attack the book as a Murdoch special. From the folks who brought you Fox News…”
Brock started his career working with Republicans, and made his name in a tell-all book about Anita Hill, titled, The Real Anita Hill. He publicly switched sides to work with President Bill Clinton, writing several books “exposing” how the right functions.
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