What Kind of “Agreement” Existed Between Sanders and Clinton?

CLINTON OPERATIVE:  “CLEARLY WE HAVE SOME LEVERAGE”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 5, 2016) — In an email dated May 26, 2015 highlighted in WikiLeaks’ Twitter feed on Saturday, a Hillary Clinton strategist responded to then-Democrat primary contender Bernie Sanders’ public criticism of Clinton’s “wealth” with “This isn’t in keeping w the agreement. Since we clearly have some leverage, would be good to flag this for him. I could send a signal via Welch–or did you establish a direct line w him?”

The respondent is “re47@hillaryclinton.com,” who was forwarding the email chain to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. A search for “re47@hillaryclinton.com” within the email archive curiously yields no results for this writer but appears to be the email address used by Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, as stated by WikiLeaks in its tweet.

A search at WikiLeaks for “Welch” also yielded an error message.

However, Rep. Peter Welch (D) of Vermont had been a Sanders supporter and superdelegate.

Elsewhere in the Podesta email releases which began October 7, Podesta strategized with others as to how best and when to destroy Sanders politically, with a former Bill Clinton aide stating to Podesta, “Bernie needs to be ground to a pulp.”

In emails released by WikiLeaks in July, Democrat National Committee (DNC) operatives were seen to have favored Clinton over Sanders despite the organization’s public pledge of having remained “neutral” during the primary season.  The revelations caused the resignations of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and three other activists.

At the opening of the convention, the DNC formally “apologized” to Sanders for the comments made in the released emails, thereby acknowledging their authenticity.

DNC Vice-chair Donna Brazile then became interim chairwoman, a post she continues to hold despite further WikiLeaks revelations that she supplied at least two townhall-event questions to the Clinton campaign in advance while working as a political commentator at CNN and panelist at ABC News.

During the primaries, Sanders collected millions of dollars without the assistance of a political action committee, having framed himself as a Washington “outsider” but endorsed Clinton two weeks before the Democrat National Convention in late July, then urged his supporters at the convention to do the same.  Sanders has campaigned for Clinton recently as the 2016 presidential contest reaches its conclusion on November 8.

It is unclear what type of “agreement” the Clinton and Sanders campaigns had in place or what type of “leverage” might be applied to curtail Sanders’s remarks on the subject.

The New York Times, which has been found to have coordinated its reporting at times with the Clinton campaign, denied that the Democrat primaries were “rigged” against Sanders.