home <u+203a> media | politics <u+203a> clinton campaign cooperated with politico on <u+2018>demystifying<u+2019> huma abedin clinton campaign cooperated with politico on <u+2018>demystifying<u+2019> huma abedin 0 shares 




[11/1/16] asked to provide a quotation for a politico profile of huma abedin in july 2015, clinton campaign manager john podesta wanted to use the phrase <u+201c>wicked smart<u+201d> instead of <u+201c>bright,<u+201d> and he emphasized abedin<u+2019>s <u+201c>strategic sense.<u+201d> 




podesta also agreed with a campaign staffer<u+2019>s suggestion to describe abedin as <u+201c>an integral part of the team.<u+201d> 




the wikileaks email exchange , dated july 2, 2015 and released on tuesday, begins with clinton<u+2019>s press secretary nicholas merrill telling milia fisher, podesta<u+2019>s aide, that <u+201c>politico has been working on a profile on huma that we are being what i<u+2019>d call partially cooperative with.<u+201d> 




merrill said after consulting with communications director jennifer palmieri and huma herself, the campaign decided to have the reporter sit down with huma <u+201c>off the record.<u+201d> 




<u+201c>we think there is some value in demystifying her a bit in general, and politico isn<u+2019>t a bad place to do it,<u+201d> merrill wrote to fisher. 




merrill asked fisher to see if podesta <u+201c>would be willing to weigh in, which i think would be good in the spirit of showing team unity.<u+201d> 




<u+201c>the piece will be about huma<u+2019>s evolution from body person to senior staffer, so if he<u+2019>s up for it, maybe john could say something about her being a multi-faceted team player,<u+201d> merrill wrote. then he offered a suggested quotation: 




<u+201c>like: i was there at the white house when huma was a young intern, and now she<u+2019>s an integral part of the team. she<u+2019>s as multi-faceted as she is bright, and when you combine that with her humility, you couldn<u+2019>t ask for a better colleague.<u+201d> 




merrill tells fisher, <u+201c>feel free to tweak that, put it in john<u+2019>s voice, or blow it up.<u+201d> 




fisher forwarded merrill<u+2019>s email to podesta, asking him if he<u+2019>d be willing to provide a quote. <u+201c>comms (communications) thinks it might lend an air of community to the piece,<u+201d> she wrote to podesta. 




podesta<u+2019>s reply: <u+201c>change bright to <u+2018>wicked smart<u+2019> and after humilty add <u+2018>and strategic sense.'<u+201d> 




the complete email exchange, as provided by wikileaks, can be seen here : 




the july 2, 2015 politico profile of abedin described her as <u+201c>clinton<u+2019>s longest-serving aide.<u+201d> it said that <u+201c>like a mother monitoring her child on the playground, she never let clinton drift out of her line of sight, ever vigilant and poised to act.<u+201d> post navigation
clinton campaign cooperated with politico on <u+2018>demystifying<u+2019> huma abedin
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