hillary clinton during the long democratic primary fight cast herself as a committed populist fully prepared to jail wall street bankers, as she scrambled to beat back an unexpectedly strong challenge from liberal sen. bernie sanders. but in a trio of paid talks before she entered the presidential race, mrs. clinton took on a friendlier, more pro-business persona that democratic voters seldom saw as she pursued the party nomination. in what appear to be transcripts of her comments at the events in 2013, which were underwritten by goldman sachs group inc., mrs. clinton spoke about the importance of free trade, sounded a skeptical note about financial regulation, and said the political system would benefit if more <u+201c>successful business people<u+201d> ran for public office. the clinton campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the material being posted by wikileaks is authentic. wikileaks posted the reputed transcripts on saturday as part of a rolling release of thousands of hacked campaign emails . among the emails made public was one in which mrs. clinton appeared unhappy with her own campaign message early on the trail. u.s. officials believe russia hacked into clinton campaign chairman john podesta <u+2019>s private email account, sweeping up communications about the campaign<u+2019>s strategy and using wikileaks to make them public. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re witnessing another effort to steal private campaign documents in order to influence an election,<u+201d> campaign spokesman glen caplin said in a statement. <u+201c>only this time, instead of filing cabinets, it<u+2019>s people<u+2019>s emails they<u+2019>re breaking into and a foreign government is behind it.<u+201d> on oct. 7, wikileaks publicized what it said were excerpts of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s paid speeches, which both mr. sanders and republican nominee donald trump have invoked as a sign of her purported coziness with corporate interests. saturday<u+2019>s release appears to include complete transcripts of three speeches for which she received a total of $675,000 from goldman. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s wall street speeches were a running point of contention in her race against mr. sanders. the vermont senator repeatedly called for her to disclose the transcripts , saying they must have been of <u+201c>shakespearean<u+201d> quality to warrant such high fees. behind the sarcasm was a message that mrs. clinton couldn<u+2019>t be trusted to police wall street and prevent the sort of financial crisis that plunged the economy into recession in 2008. the talks appeared to involve mrs. clinton in onstage conversations with interviewers. the transcripts show mrs. clinton sounding relaxed and comfortable as friendly questioners cover an array of topics including foreign policy, the economy and american politics. speaking about two years before she officially entered the presidential race, mrs. clinton fielded repeated questions about her political ambitions. in a light exchange in june 2013 with lloyd blankfein, chief executive officer of goldman sachs, she joked about what he would need to do if he were to run for president. <u+201c>i think you would leave goldman sachs and start running a soup kitchen somewhere,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>for one thing, the stock would go up,<u+201d> mr. blankfein said. <u+201c>then you could be legend in your own time, both when you were there and when you left,<u+201d> mrs. clinton said. in another speech, in october 2013, mrs. clinton seemed to welcome a suggestion from the audience that wealthier and more entrepreneurial people run for public office. <u+201c>i would like to see more successful business people run for office,<u+201d> she said, adding that people with financial means <u+201c>have a certain level of freedom.<u+201d> she went on, <u+201c>and there<u+2019>s that memorable phrase from a former member of the senate: <u+2018>you can maybe be rented but never bought.<u+2019> and i think it<u+2019>s important to have people with those experiences.<u+201d> in another speech from october 2013, she is quoted as telling goldman<u+2019>s alternative investments symposium in new york that financial regulators should take care to incorporate wall street<u+2019>s perspective and be cautious about crimping the financial industry. <u+201c>there has to be an understanding of how what happens here on wall street has such broad consequences, not just for the domestic but the global economy,<u+201d> she said, according to the transcript. <u+201c>so more thought has to be given to the process and transactions and regulations, so that we don<u+2019>t kill or maim what works<u+2026><u+201d> it is important to <u+201c>concentrate on the most effective way of moving forward with the brainpower and the financial power that exists here,<u+201d> she said in the document. while serving as secretary of state, mrs. clinton praised the 12-nation pacific trade deal that has been one of president barack obama <u+2019>s international priorities. in the heat of the democratic primary fight, however, she came out against the pact, called the trans-pacific partnership, saying it didn<u+2019>t do enough to protect workers. she seemed to offer a positive view of tpp in the alternative investments symposium speech. voicing regret over a government shutdown in 2013, she noted that mr. obama was forced to cancel a planned trip to asian summit meetings. that deprived him of a chance to <u+201c>look over the horizon about, you know, trading opportunities and the trans-pacific partnership, other kinds of work that needs to be done in the region to keep, you know, commerce flowing<u+2026><u+201d> she said, according to the transcript. apart from the speeches, emails released saturday offered a window into mrs. clinton<u+2019>s thinking about her own campaign. one underscored the campaign<u+2019>s early fumbles in trying to find a message. dan schwerin, the campaign<u+2019>s top speechwriter, wrote in an email to other campaign officials in june 2015, two months after mrs. clinton entered the race, that mrs. clinton had called him to express a <u+201c>fair amount of frustration with how things are going.<u+201d> <u+201c>she said we<u+2019>ve given a series of very good policy speeches and in between we just keep giving her poll-tested lines that don<u+2019>t work,<u+201d> wrote mr. schwerin about mrs. clinton. mrs. clinton said she liked the campaign<u+2019>s early use of the <u+201c>four fights<u+201d> theme<u+2014>an apparent reference to an early message of building a better economy, strengthening families, expanding america<u+2019>s peace, security and prosperity, and improving government at home. but she was disappointed in some of the other lines her speechwriting team had been giving her. mrs. clinton also apparently complained to mr. schwerin that she had to come up with the four-fights theme herself, <u+201c>because we didn<u+2019>t give her anything better,<u+201d> he wrote. <u+2014>colleen mccain nelson and laura meckler contributed to this article.
wikileaks release reveals hillary clinton<u+2019>s sympathy for wall street  - wsj
peter nicholas byron tau