Hillary Clinton and her associates were afraid of losing female voters to Donald Trump if they continued trying to cast him as “dangerous,” hacked emails have revealed.
The revelation was included in a batch of emails purportedly obtained from a personal Gmail account held by Capricia Penavic Marshall, whose 2009-2013 tenure as chief of protocol at the State Department coincided with Clinton’s term as secretary of state.
According to the emails, which were published by DCLeaks on Thursday, the exchange about Trump began with a message from Erick Mullen, a top Democratic executive at the Washington-based PR firm Mercury LLC, sent to Marshall and Alexandra Bucaciuc, another executive at Mercury.
“Everybody (rightfully) resents armchair quarterbacking and I hate myself for not being in a position to stop working and volunteer full time,” Mullen wrote in the message dated May 7, 2016. “That said, I care about the Clintons for personal and patriotic reasons and offer these observations.”
“Donald Trump has made it perfectly clear that his strategy is to regain the popular support of women by using the strong man archetype to ‘make them feel safe.’ The campaign’s choice to frame Donald as dangerous and scary reinforces Donald’s gambit rather than undermining it,” he added. “The campaign is literally projecting its own fear of the strong man.”
Mullen suggested new talking points to replace the idea that Trump was too tough. “He is the guy who wants to marry your niece for all the wrong reasons and exposing him requires a series of questions, because she won’t listen to a series of statements,” he wrote.
“Why does he sleep [at] home every night and phone in press interviews? Because he lacks toughness, because he’s used to be coddled and because he needs notes,” Mullen wrote. “Why haven’t his speeches evolved or his positions matured? Because he lacks the discipline and self-respect to improve his campaign.”
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Marshall subsequently forwarded the email to top Clinton aide Jake Sullivan, vice campaign chair Huma Abedin, and a name listed as “H,” which is commonly associated with Clinton’s online persona. “His thoughts are interesting,” Marshall said.
“I agree and am copying Jen so she can follow up w Erick,” Clinton’s persona replied, using the address [email protected]“>[email protected].
Jen Palmieri is the communications director for Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Neither Marshall nor Clinton have confirmed the legitimacy of information included in the leak. DCLeaks has published information from a slew of high profile figures this year, including the billionaire George Soros and former secretary of state Colin Powell.
