Clinton Camp: Can’t Say Hillary Has Been in Middle-Class Homes

Hillary Clinton’s top advisers fretted about saying the Democratic presidential nominee had visited middle-class homes because she “has not really done a lot of that this year.”

In a Dec. 15, 2015, email, top Clinton advisers Ron Klain and Mandy Grunwald went over some possible debate points that could come up.

“I wouldn’t say ‘I’ve been in their homes,’ (Hillary) has not really done a lot of that this year.”

But when advising Clinton to boast of how much she interacts with middle-class folks, the advisers did not want to overdo it. The reason was likely simple: Clinton had been too busy meeting with the top 1 percent and giving speeches to moneyed audiences to actually meet the masses.

“On the middle class tax cut,” remarked top adviser Mandy Grunwald. “I wouldn’t say ‘I’ve been in their homes’ — [Hillary] has not really done a lot of that this year.”

The Clinton team was apparently preparing for the Dec. 19, 2015, debate at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. The team was emailing back and forth about possible responses and powerful rebukes to rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The emails were released in a fourth dump of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s emails by WikiLeaks Wednesday.

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Grunwald said that Clinton sounded too much like Rev. Jesse Jackson when she criticized the Republicans for being too hateful. Grunwald also appeared to dislike a rhyme about Donald Trump.

“On GOP rhetoric, this line feels a little too Jesse Jackson for HRC,” said Grunwald. “He’s not working to make American great – he’s trying to turn Americans to hate.”

It is not surprising the Clinton team agonized over the middle-class issues. She was embroiled in a tough primary between a self-described Democratic-Socialist promising free everything, while she had to convince people she was not too wealthy and too tied to Wall Street.

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In an earlier email leak on Wikileaks, Clinton herself called her speechwriter and said her speeches on the middle class rang hollow.

“HRC (Hillary Clinton) just called me and expressed a fair amount of frustration with how things are going,” wrote Dan Schwerin in an email to a number of top Clinton aides. “She said we’ve given a series of very good policy speeches and in between we just keep giving her poll-tested lines that don’t work, like make the middle class mean something.”

In another email from Podesta himself, the Clinton campaign chairman said another line bothered her: “I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans.”