Sanders supporters seethe over Clinton's
leaked remarks to Wall St.
Send a link to a friend
[October 10, 2016]
By Luciana Lopez and Jeff Mason
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters of former
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday expressed
anger and vindication over leaked comments made by Hillary Clinton to
banks and big business that appeared to confirm their fears about her
support for global trade and tendency to cozy up to Wall Street.
Clinton, who needs Sanders' coalition of young and left-leaning voters
to propel her to the presidency, pushes for open trade and open borders
in one of the speeches, and takes a conciliatory approach to Wall
Street, both positions she later backed away from in an effort to
capture the popular appeal of Sanders' attacks on trade deals and
powerful banks.
The excerpts of remarks by the former secretary of state, made in 2013
and 2014 in closed-door meetings where audiences paid to attend, were
published online on Friday by WikiLeaks, which sourced them to the email
account of John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman.
Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the speech
transcripts. Clinton has previously declined to release any such
transcripts.
"This is a very clear illustration of why there is a fundamental lack of
trust from progressives for Hillary Clinton,” said Tobita Chow, chair of
the People's Lobby in Chicago, which endorsed Sanders in the primary
election.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Oct/10/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_062409.png)
"The progressive movement needs to make a call to Secretary Clinton to
clarify where she stands really on these issues and that’s got to
involve very clear renunciations of the positions that are revealed in
these transcripts,” Chow said.
The revelations were quickly overshadowed by the release of an
11-year-old recording of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential
nominee, making lewd comments about women.
TRUST PROBLEM
Clinton has worked hard to build trust with so-called progressives,
adopting several of Sanders' positions after she bested him in the
primary race. The U.S. senator from Vermont now supports his former
rival in the Nov. 8 general election against Trump.
Still, Clinton has struggled to win support from young "millennials" who
were crucial to Sanders' success, and some Democrats expressed concern
that the leaks would discourage those supporters from showing up to
vote.
“That is a big concern and this certainly doesn’t help,” said Larry
Cohen, chair of the board of Our Revolution, a progressive organization
formed in the wake of Sanders’ bid for the presidency, which aims to
keep pushing the former candidate's ideas at a grassroots level. "It
matters in terms of turnout, energy, volunteering, all those things."
The Clinton campaign said it would not confirm the accuracy of the
documents released by WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
"We are not going to confirm the authenticity of stolen documents
released by Julian Assange, who has made no secret of his desire to
damage Hillary Clinton," said Glen Caplin, a campaign spokesman.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/101016PICS/news_y39.jpg)
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton acknowledges the
crowd at a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. October
4, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_090916.png)
"Guccifer 2.0 has already proven the warnings of top national
security officials that documents can be faked as part of a
sophisticated Russian misinformation campaign," he said, referring
to the hacker or hacking group that altered some data stolen from
the Democratic National Committee before making it public earlier
this year.
The U.S. government on Friday formally accused Russia of a campaign
of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the
election.
FACEBOOK BACKLASH
The origin of the leaks did not dampen social media criticism of
the speeches by some.
"Bernie was right about Hillary,” wrote Facebook user Grace Tilly,
“she’s a tool for Wall Street.”
“Clinton is the politicians’ politician - exactly the Wall Street
insider Bernie described,” wrote Facebook user Brian Leach.
Spokesmen for Sanders did not respond to requests for comment. NBC
News quoted a statement from Sanders saying he would work to advance
the Democrats' policy platform.
"Whatever Secretary Clinton may or may not have said behind closed
doors on Wall Street, I am determined to implement the agenda of the
Democratic Party platform which was agreed to by her campaign," the
statement said.
Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf said progressive voters would
still choose the former first lady, even with misgivings.
"I’d like to meet the Bernie Sanders supporter who is going to say,
'Well I’m a little worried about her on international trade, so I’m
going to vote for Donald Trump'," he said.
(Additional reporting by Amy Tennery and Jonathan Allen; Editing by
Bill Rigby)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Oct/10/images/ads/current/symphony_lda_HALLOWEEN_2016.png) |