the emails have not been confirmed as authentic by the clinton campaign. | getty by ben white 10/13/16 11:58 am edt updated 10/13/16 12:42 pm edt hillary clinton<u+2019>s top advisers late last year were extremely worried about revelations in clinton<u+2019>s paid speeches to wall street banks and argued internally about ways to soften the political blow, newly hacked emails show. in an email exchange from november 2015, as clinton was preparing for challenges from the left in the democratic primary, campaign aides brian fallon, jake sullivan and dan schwerin, along with outside adviser mandy grunwald, discussed leaking excerpts from a paid clinton speech to deutsche bank to offset reporting in politico and other outlets on gentle things the candidate said about wall street in paid remarks to goldman sachs. story continued below <u+201c>i wanted to float one idea,<u+201d> schwerin, a top clinton speechwriter, wrote on nov. 20, according to emails released by wikileaks. <u+201c>hrc did a paid speech in nyc for deutsche bank. i wrote her a long riff about economic fairness and how the financial industry has lost its way precisely for the purpose of having something we could show people if ever asked what she was saying behind closed doors for two years to all those fat cats.<u+201d> the emails have not been confirmed as authentic by the clinton campaign. spokesman glen caplin said in an email on thursday that the hack raises serious questions about the trump campaign, "we now know the fbi believes the russians are behind this hack and that a trump campaign associate was back-channeling with julian assange. on day 5 of the wikileaks propaganda campaign the question is what did the trump campaign know and when did they know it?" caplin said. schwerin in the nov. 20 email added that the deutsche bank remarks were <u+201c>definitely not as tough or pointed as we would write it now, but it's much more than most people would assume she was saying in paid speeches.<u+201d> and he went on suggest that <u+201c>perhaps at some point there will be value in sharing this with a reporter and getting a story written. upside would be that when people say she's too close to wall street and has taken too much money from bankers, we can point to evidence that she wasn't afraid to speak truth to power.<u+201d> schwerin also cited the possible negative ramifications of putting out some of the deutsche bank remarks. <u+201c>downside would be that we could then be pushed to release transcripts from all her paid speeches, which would be less helpful (although probably not disastrous). in the end, i'm not sure this is worth doing, but wanted to flag it so you know it's out there.<u+201d> fallon then picks up the email thread on nov. 23 following a request from a reporter for the associated press working on a story about clinton<u+2019>s paid wall street speeches. <u+201c>i think we could come up with a vanilla characterization that challenges the idea that she sucked up to these folks in her appearances,<u+201d> fallon wrote. <u+201c>but then use ap's raising of this to our advantage to pitch someone to do an exclusive by providing at least the key excerpts from this deutsche bank speech. in doing so, we could have the reporting be sourced to a <u+2018>transcript obtained by [news outlet]<u+2019> so it is not confirmed as us selectively providing one transcript while refusing to share others.<u+201d> grunwald then pushes back on the idea of leaking excerpts from the deutsche bank speech. <u+201c>i worry about going down this road. first, the remarks below make it sound like hrc doesnt think the game is rigged -- only that she recognizes that the public thinks so. they are angry. she isn't,<u+201d> grunwald wrote. <u+201c>second, once you start looking at speeches, you run smack into .. [a] report [from] politico on hrc's goldman sachs speech, in which hrc isn't quoted directly, but described as saying people shouldn't be vilifying wall street.<u+201d> the story in question, by politico reporters ben white and maggie haberman, appeared in november 2013, and detailed clinton saying positive things about the financial industry and suggesting that wall street alone did not cause the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. grunwald added: <u+201c>maybe you think the deutsche bank speech takes the sting out of the goldman report -- but i am concerned that the passage below will exacerbate not improve the situation.<u+201d> in the deutsche bank remarks, from oct. 7, 2014, clinton said <u+201c>it's no surprise that many americans feel frustrated, some even angry, as you probably see in news coverage. and a lot of that anger has been directed at the financial industry.<u+201d> she added: <u+201c>it's important to recognize the vital role that the financial markets play in our economy and that so many of you are contributing to. <u+2026> so even if it may not be 100 percent true, if the perception is that somehow the game is rigged, that should be a problem for all of us, and we have to be willing to make that absolutely clear. and if there are issues, if there's wrongdoing, people have to be held accountable and we have to try to deter future bad behavior, because the public trust is at the core of both a free market economy and a democracy.<u+201d> clinton went on to quote bank of england governor mark carney calling for stronger oversight of the financial industry and an op-ed by chicago mercantile exchange president terry duffy in the wall street journal in which duffy criticized the financial industry for having <u+201c>forgotten who we serve.<u+201d> at the end of the email chain, sullivan, clinton<u+2019>s top policy aide, suggested simply getting someone to cite the fact that clinton quoted carney and duffy in the deutsche bank speech. <u+201c>could we just get someone to say she quoted duffy and carney to them, to the effect that wall street had lost its way?<u+201d> he wrote. by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
clinton aides tried to soften blow of paid wall street speeches - politico
ben white michael grunwald