WASHINGTON D.C.—Hillary Clinton’s unofficial political adviser Sidney Blumenthal walked Clinton through the Democratic strategy on how to prop up less-threatening Republican candidates in order to hurt the stronger Republicans.
Clinton made clear that she already knew the strategy well.
Blumenthal emailed then-Secretary of State Clinton on December 14, 2011, during the heat of the Republican primary, to complain about Obama adviser David Axelrod, who attacked Newt Gingrich by saying that “the higher a monkey climbs on a pole, the more you can see his butt.”
Axelrod meant that Gingrich would become more vulnerable as he rose in the polls. Blumenthal wanted to know why Axelrod was giving credence to Gingrich. Blumenthal was so angry that he used all caps and multiple exclamation points at the end of sentences and made numerous spelling errors.
“POLITICAL MALPRACTICE. WHY IS OBAMA TEAM ATTACKING GINGRICH?!?! WHY ARE THEY ACTING AS AN ADJUNCT TO THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGNI’ml,” Blumenthal wrote.
“THEY SHOULD BE CALLING NEVVT ‘FORMIDABLE’ AND POINTING TO POLL SHOWING REPUBLICANS REGARD HIM AS MORE ‘ELECTABLE’ THAN ROMNEY!!!* BUILD UP NEWT WITHOUT EXCITING REPUBLICAN BASE VOTERS TO VOTE FOR ROMNEY,” Blumenthal added.
“THE STRATEGY SHOULD BE TO LIFT NEWT, UNDERMINE ROMNEY, ANYTHING TO PREVENT HIS NOMINATION, CREATE WEDGES WITHIN GOP PRIMARY. WHY IS THE OBAMA TEAM HELPING ROMNEY TRY TO BRING DOWN NEVVTI21?!,” Blumenthal concluded.
“Who knows????” Clinton replied.