Clinton speech transcripts in hacked emails

ajc.com

Credit: Jamie Dupree

Credit: Jamie Dupree

As the group Wikileaks released emails from a top aide to Hillary Clinton on Friday, some of those emails seemed to contain portions of speeches that Clinton had given to major business groups, remarks that were a major flash point during her primary campaign against Bernie Sanders.

Republicans tried to seize on some of the email contents to undermine Clinton, especially with supporters of Bernie Sanders.

"With today’s Wikileaks revelations we are finding out who Hillary Clinton really is, and it’s not hard to see why she fought so hard to keep her transcripts of speeches to Wall Street banks paying her millions of dollars secret," said RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

Among the items that GOP critics flagged in the speech excerpts:

+ "My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders"

+ Clinton felt big banks were blamed too much for the 2008 Wall Street collapse

+ Clinton acknowledged that "I'm kind of far removed" from the struggles of the middle class

+ Clinton advocated a single payer health system

+ In one speech, Clinton seemed to call those Democrats who might be more disposed to support a third party candidate, a "bucket of losers"

The hacked emails from Clinton campaign aide John Podesta also include an internal research document that basically red-flags a series of Clinton speech quotes, surmising that some could be used against her in the Democratic Primary.

ajc.com

Credit: Jamie Dupree

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Credit: Jamie Dupree

The Clinton campaign would not confirm or deny if the emails were authentic, though spokesman Brian Fallon criticized those who were going through the "fruits" of a computer hack by Russia.

Republicans weren't buying that.

"The truth that has been exposed here is that the persona Hillary Clinton has adopted for her campaign is a complete and utter fraud," said RNC chief Priebus.

But Priebus was a lonely GOP figure on the Wikileaks email dump, as hours after their release, no elected Republicans from Congress had even issued a statement about their contents.