John Harwood of CNBC and The New York Times, who moderated one of the early Republican presidential primary debates, was not only supportive of Hillary Clinton, but boasted to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta about goading Donald Trump at the debate, according to new emails released Tuesday by Wikileaks.
An earlier batch of emails released last week showed Harwood congratulating Clinton on primary wins, and minimizing the importance of her e-mail scandal.
In one of the new emails, sent in December 2015, Harwood tells Podesta: “I imagine… …that Obama feels some (sad) vindication at this demonstration of his years-long point about the opposition party veering off the rails. I certainly am feeling that way with respect to how I questioned Trump at our debate”.
Among Harwood’s questions to Trump were: “Let’s be honest. Is this a comic book version of a Presidential campaign?”; “I talked to economic advisors who have served presidents of both parties. They said that you have as much chance of cutting taxes that much without increasing the deficit as you would of flying away from that podium by flapping your arms around.”
In another email, Harwood commiserated with Podesta about Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, the investigative book by Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer that exposed the Clintons’ conflicts of interest between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.
Harwood complained that the New York Times — his own paper — had given the book any attention: “I find it weird that NYT made some sort of deal with the guy writing that book,” he wrote.
Other emails show Harwood communicating with Podesta about other candidates — real and potential — including Vice President Joe Biden on the Democratic side, and Dr. Ben Carson on the Republican side.
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.