A Wikileaks email release this week suggests that California Gov. Jerry Brown planned to endorse Hillary Clinton all along, despite remaining publicly neutral between Clinton and rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) throughout most of the primary election, until it was almost over.
The email, dated November 2014 and sent by Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to campaign chair John Podesta, indicated: “He wants folks to privately know he is ready to go when she is. If she runs, he’s ready to help.”
More than a year and a half later, with just one week to go before the California primary, Brown made his support for Clinton public. However, his support was rather bland, citing the fact that Clinton’s nomination had become inevitable, and arguing that she would be a better choice than Republican Donald Trump — rather than making a strong positive case for Clinton. He also was at great pains to praise Sanders, even drawing parallels between Sanders’s campaign and his own 1992 run:
I have closely watched the primaries and am deeply impressed with how well Bernie Sanders has done. He has driven home the message that the top one percent has unfairly captured way too much of America’s wealth, leaving the majority of people far behind. In 1992, I attempted a similar campaign.
Brown seemed to entertain the idea of a run of his own, telling NBC News’ Chuck Todd that he would have tried to reach the White House for a fourth time if he were ten years younger. He stressed that climate change would be among the more important issues that any president would have to face in office.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.