Former President Bill Clinton was scheduled to give a speech to investment bank Morgan Stanley on the first day Hillary Clinton would campaign in Iowa in advance of the state’s caucuses, according to new emails released by WikiLeaks.
The former president agreed to cancel the speech, much to Hillary Clinton’s disappointment.
“HRC very strongly did not want him to cancel that particular speech,” Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin wrote March 11, 2015, in response to a question about Bill Clinton’s speech to Morgan Stanley.
Some Clinton aides expressed concerns about the timing of the speech. Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy April 12, 2015. Three days later on April 15, she traveled to Iowa to campaign in the state. Bill Clinton was scheduled to address Morgan Stanley on the same day. (RELATED: Qatar Gave Clinton Foundation A Million Dollar Check For Bill’s Birthday)
“Yes the issue is that if we’re announcing on the 12th/13th and he’s speaking to a wall street bank on the 15th, that’s begging for a bad rollout,” campaign manager Robby Mook responded.
Later that day, Abedin conveyed Hillary Clinton’s reluctance to cancel the speech. “John and Robby – HRC is reiterating her original position,” she wrote. “She does not want him to cancel.”
Shortly thereafter, Mook insisted that the optics of the speech imperiled their first campaign swing through Iowa in advance of the state’s caucuses. “I know this is not the answer she wants, but I feel very strongly that doing the speech is a mistake–the data are very clear on the potential consequences,” he wrote. “Wall Street ranks first for Iowans among a list of institutions that ‘take advantage of every day Americans,’ scoring twice as high as the general election electorate. I recognize the sacrifice and disappointment that cancelling will create, but it’s a very consequential unforced error and could plague us in stories for months.”
Mook’s plea moved the Clintons to cancel the event. The Daily Caller News Foundation was unable to confirm if Bill Clinton would have been compensated for the speech.
U.S. intelligence officials have definitively linked WikiLeaks to actors near the Russian government. They say the Podesta hack is likely part of a scheme to interfere in the presidential election.
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