President Obama said the national media was excessively concerned with the John Podesta and Democratic National Committee emails hacked this year in the heat of the election, and that it became an “obsession” that hurt Hillary Clinton.
“I’m finding it a little curious that everybody’s suddenly acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging Hillary Clinton, because you guys wrote about it everyday, every single leak, about every little juicy tidbit of political gossip, including [Clinton campaign chair] John Podesta’s risotto recipe,” he said. “This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage.”
Obama said it was “worth us reflecting how it is that a presidential election of such importance, of such moment, with so many big issues at stake and such a contrast between the candidates came to be dominated by a bunch of these leaks.”
The DNC emails in the summer revealed that the committee was largely working against Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent Bernie Sanders, despite claiming to be neutral in the race.
The Podesta emails mostly showed the campaign’s unease with Clinton’s voter appeal and contained some derogatory language toward some in politics in media, including two accomplished politicians, who Podesta had referred to in one email as “needy Latinos.”
The emails are widely believe to have been hacked by Russians, with some intelligence indications that it may have directly been ordered by the government.
