David Brock, founder of the pro-Hillary Clinton super PACs American Bridge 21st Century and Correct the Record, says Clinton’s private email scandal highlights her commendable “open-mindedness.”
Brock, who also founded Media Matters For America, defended Clinton and threw some jabs at her potential Democratic challenger Joe Biden in a rare interview with “Chicago” magazine.
“Yes, he’s a friend,” Brock said of Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal, a major figure in the email scandal who recruited Brock into the Clinton fold in the late 1990’s. “I don’t think there’s anything unusual. Sid and Hillary have a friendship that goes back more than 30 years. And as a public official, you hear from your friends on a whole variety of issues. To me what it means is that she was interested in having information that was independent of government channels, and to me that suggests an open-mindedness and a desire to know everything that one could know about various subjects.”
Brock also said that Clinton’s emails, which show State Department coordination with private companies and nonprofits and panic over inquiries into the Benghazi scandal, are “benign.”
“I think that the more emails that come out and the more people see what’s in them, they’re totally benign. They’re about wanting skim milk in your tea,” Brock said. “The story can’t completely go away because all the email hasn’t come out yet.”Brock took some shots at Biden.”I think he’ll realize that at this point in his career he can go out with everyone’s respect and esteem. Why go through what could be a very challenging process?,” Brock said, doubting a Biden run but denying responsibility for behind-the-scenes threats against Biden from people in Clinton-World.
“I think inevitably it would come up, and there’s the potential to be unhelpful. I think that episode is probably not to his advantage,” Brock said, referring to Biden presiding over the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings, which confirmed Thomas despite unfounded allegations of sexual harassment by ex-staffer Anita Hill.
As a conservative journalist, Brock wrote a book called “The Real Anita Hill” in the 1990s that reported on the dubiousness of Hill’s claims, but later switched sides and became a liberal operative.
Brock is no fan of Obama operative David Axelrod, who might end up working for Biden.
“I’ve read some things from [David] Axelrod that were not super helpful—tweets and some stuff like that,” Brock said.
As for Correct the Record’s attacks on Bernie Sanders?
“This is a political campaign, and inevitably you’re going to have to do some of that.”
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