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Ah yes, once again we revisit the WikiLeaks cache of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s emails, observing once again the behind-the-scenes goings-on and true nature of the staffers who make up the campaign of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In a rather lengthy August 2015 email chain that involved more than half a dozen campaign staffers, a great discussion ensued over suggested edits that needed to be made to an op-ed article purportedly written by Clinton — most likely written for her, needing only her name added to it — on the topic of substance abuse and her proposals to combat the problem.
One particular aspect of the conversation that jumped out was with regard to the use of the term “black men,” and whether or not it should be changed to “African-American” or left out of the piece altogether.
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The line in question read: “In South Carolina, a lawyer spoke movingly about the holes in the community left by generations of black men who ended up imprisoned for non-violent drug offenses rather than getting the treatment they needed.”
Campaign political director Amanda Renteria objected to the term:
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“Perhaps I’m overly sensitive but should we change calling out black men at the beginning? I know we don’t want to ignore that this is a big deal in the AfAm community, but it feels to me like she is singling them out which could be taken very badly. Defer to group but it stood out when I read it.”
In response, campaign adviser Ann O’Leary wrote: “Intended to be sure she was listening to votes in all 4 first states not just IA & NH with their skewed demographics. Think we need to keep it, but Maya/Karen — you good? Or want to suggest alternative?”
That prompted a reply from Marlon Marshall, the campaign’s director of state/political engagement: “Defer to Maya and Karen if we keep, but can we say African-American instead of Black?”
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Campaign consultant and spokeswoman Karen Finney joined in to say: “Agree re AA; I think the mention is OK because she’s talking about what people have talked to her about.”
Further discussion of the issue revolved around whether it would come across as though they were “calling out” black men in particular contrasted with the concern that it would seem as if Clinton were only worried about the drug epidemic in the white community if blacks weren’t mentioned.
It remained unclear which way the campaign went with that particular issue, as the final draft of the op-ed containing all the suggested edits was not included in the email chain, and it was unclear whether it would even be published due to its excessive length.
This right here is an example of just how carefully scripted, choreographed, focus-grouped and poll-tested the Clinton campaign is with regard to their messaging, that they would have drawn out discussions on exactly which specific term should be used to address particular groups of people, and whether those groups should even be mentioned or not out of fear of negative publicity.
H/T The Daily Caller
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