John Harwood, a reporter for CNBC and columnist at the New York Times, consulted with Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman ahead of an interview he was to conduct with then-Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, according to an email leaked on Sunday.
“What should I ask Jeb … in ‘Speakeasy’ interview tomorrow?” Harwood said in a September 2015 email to Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta. “Speakeasy” is the name of Harwood’s interview segment at CNBC.
The email was published online Monday by WikiLeaks, which has obtained illegally hacked emails from Podesta’s personal Gmail account and has been publishing some each day over the last few weeks.
It’s not uncommon for reporters to discuss oppositional information with political operatives or candidates, but Harwood’s email was seen on Twitter as more evidence that many in the media are colluding with Democrats.
A main theme in Republican Donald Trump’s campaign is that the news media have helped “rig” the election.
Harwood’s name has surfaced at other times in the Podesta email hack, often times in emails that showed him praising the Clinton campaign or simply chatting with Podesta. In another email released Monday, Harwood asked Podesta, “Roughly, what is your pace … for a 4-mile run?”
