Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, attacked Gov. Peter Shumlin over Twitter Thursday after an email emerged claiming she “begged” him not to endorse Hillary Clinton for president last year.
“1st, I don’t beg,” O’Meara Sanders tweeted Thursday morning. “Knew Gov Shumlin endorsement of HRC worthless,told him his timing as @BernieSanders announced was pathetic crass politics.”
“He called Bernie a few hours ago and said he’s endorsing you, Madame Secretary,” Mook wrote of the governor. “It will be public at 3:30 today. This was a bold move for him so it would be great if you can call and say thanks.”
Mook added, “Apparently Jane Sanders has now called him twice and begged him to change his mind and he’s stood firm.”
Shumlin did go on to announce his Clinton endorsement the day Mook sent his email. Also that day, Sanders released the details of his upcoming campaign kickoff on the Burlington waterfront. The timing led many Sanders supporters to view Shumlin’s announcement as particularly disrespectful — a point O’Meara Sanders appears to have been making in her tweet.
O’Meara Sanders did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. Bill Lofy, who was serving as a political adviser to Shumlin at the time Mook sent the email, declined to comment, as did the governor’s current spokesman, Scott Coriell.
Other emails released this week by WikiLeaks indicate that Shumlin was a helpful behind-the-scenes ally to Clinton during the early months of her campaign. In a June 2015 message, Clinton’s labor outreach director, Nikki Budzinski, fretted that the Vermont-National Education Association might soon announce its endorsement of Sanders.
“I agree w you that this is distressing I will bring up w Shumlin too,” Mook responded. “Talking to him tomorrow.”
In an April 2015 message — sent the day after Vermont Public Radio broke the news that Sanders would soon join the race and the day before he formally did so — Mook asked his colleagues whether they had made any progress courting Vermont state legislators. Brynne Craig, Clinton’s deputy national political director, responded:
Yes, we’ve done the following:We sent an introduction email + information on the organizing meeting to Senate and House D’s in Vermont. The Governor’s office helped to get us the list. We decided to do this because they are in session and would look at email before answering their phones.
We are following up with calls to their personal cells which the Governor’s office also provided.
It’s unclear whether Craig was referring to Shumlin’s state office, which is prohibited from engaging in electoral activities. According to Coriell, “The governor’s official office was not aiding the Clinton campaign.”
That same email chain included an update from Clinton’s national political director, Amanda Renteria, about how Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) planned to react to Sanders’ upcoming announcement. Leahy had previously announced his support for Clinton.
On Apr 29, 2015, at 12:47 PM, Amanda Renteria
wrote:Leahy – Here’s what they are/will do; they are reminding press that he supports HRC so that it’s in all the articles (like the tweet that went out today from a local reporter that got some traction). Also, when they get calls they are providing them background on why he supports her – long time relationship, working with her on so many issues, and their trip in Haiti. The local affiliates that are traveling to DC for this announcement have asked Leahy to do a stand up after Bernie’s announcement. He said no. But, it’s very likely that they will find Leahy and he is prepared with pro HRC talking points. For his own politics, he will also have to say Bernie is fighting for some important issues and then he will say but he supports HRC. We have him in a good spot.
He wants to be helpful WO being too direct or confrontational/disrespectful.
Sent from my iPhone
As Seven Days reported last week, the WikiLeaks files include correspondence between Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and Leahy’s longtime fundraiser, Tina Stoll, about a July 2015 fundraiser Podesta and his brother, lobbyist Tony Podesta, hosted on Leahy’s behalf.
Since that story’s publication, WikiLeaks posted a previously undisclosed email indicating that Stoll planned to invite “all the DC PACs and lobbyists” to the event:
Hey friends.We have several friends of John and Tony who have provided ideas of people who to invite – Jon Haber, Ricki Seidman and Luke Albee. Attached are all the lists combined and deduped. If you are ok, I will blast it out again with John’s note below. In addition, we will also be inviting all the DC PACs and lobbyists. Also attached are the people who have said yes.
Thanks so much for your help.
Best,
Tina
Jay Tilton, Leahy’s campaign spokesman, declined Thursday to comment directly on the WikiLeaks emails.
“The illegal Russian cyber-attacks are insidious acts of espionage and attempted sabotage against America’s electoral system to sway the election toward Putin’s favorite candidate,” he said in a written statement. “This Russian operation has spurred a flood of thousands upon thousands of unverified documents like this. He has never seen this unverified and allegedly stolen document and won’t be commenting.”
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Is Seven Days now considering stolen property likely altered by Russia a reliable source? To quote Shaggy: “Zoinks!”
Perhaps the information was given by the Democrats own Seth Rich who was viciously gunned down in Washington DC this summer. Julian Assange implied it was his source to Dutch media. Amazing way to keep the focus off of the corruption at hand and blame the Russians. P.S. HRC’s announcement in last nights debate of our Nuclear launch sequence, specifically our response time WAS a guarded secret. Classic
Jane’s assessment of the value of Shumlin’s support seems accurate.
Even with the endorsement of the sitting Governor (as well as senior Senator and a number of other prominent leaders), Clinton still only managed 13.6% in Vermont, failing to even meet the 15% threshold Democratic rules require to win pledged delegates.
Clearly Shumlin’s endorsement didn’t do much of anything at all to help Clinton in VT. Vermont Democratic primary voters were determined to vote for Bernie – endorsements be damned.
What Shumlin’s endorsement did was earn him disfavor among Vermonters. Already an unpopular governor, he sank even lower, and now he is pulling a good candidate down with him.
” stolen property likely altered by Russia”
Maybe you should spend less time with Shaggy hiding from imaginary ghosts and satisfying the munchies by eating tall sandwiches.
Let’s be clear folks- there is zero evidence other than government officials being taken at their word that the Russians are behind these breaches. Even if they are (which is plausible but ought to require proof) then the content of those emails is still in the public interest. Government officials frequently leak information to reporters for nefarious or political motivations, and that does not mean what they are leaking is not newsworthy. Thanks Paul for doing the digging here.
Russia leads an active propaganda campaign that makes themselves look good and the U.S. look bad. Look no further than their “news” channel, RT. They made news after a stream of reporters quit, accusing the organization of bowing to the Putin administration’s editorial wishes.
Why is it so far fetched to think they would not alter content? They took possession of content (hacked emails), THEN fed it to Wikileaks. Doctoring a few lines here and there would never be contested as it would force Clinton to admit to controversial details.
We can’t corroborate whether the Russians altered the emails, but that’s exactly the point: The source is not credible. This is about journalistic integrity, not defending Hillary Clinton. Leahy’s spokesman is right on this one. Heintz can do better.
“We are going to have to rebuild within this wild wild west of information flow some sort of curating function that people agree to” Obama. Or you could say Huma Abedin admits to a 12 million dollar pay for-play Morrocco. Of course facts like HILLARY used the Secretary of State office to become obscenely wealthy should be censored! This must be the work of those Damn commies. It only needs to be vetted because the spotlight fell on the wrong side of the hill.
Does anyone want to be endorsed by a failed governor? Even Clinton can do better than Shumlin. But, they deserve each other.
Tiki Archambeau – You are arguing that information made public that embarrasses some of the most powerful people in the world could be doctored and is therefore non-credible. That is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence, of which yours seems to be that the very people that the information embarrasses are saying that the Russians are doing it and the public ought to shield their eyes from this propaganda.
There is NO compelling evidence this information was doctored (and trust me, people have looked). There isn’t even compelling evidence that the Russians participated in the hack. Is it plausible? Sure it is! It is plausible that Trump himself hired someone for the hack, but in this world you need evidence to back up assertions, especially when they are being used to shield the powerful from public scrutiny. These DNC talking points of yours have little basis in reality.
Criticizing a journalist for reporting on matters clearly in the public interest is shameful and speaks to an embarrassing trend in this country.
Ryan – Your claims can be heard loud and clear from Trump himself. Hillary in the last debate stated that 17 security agencies confirmed the hack by Russians. Here’s her direct quote confirmed as true by Politifact:
“We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election.”
You’re welcome to ignore the Director of National Intelligence’s own assessment, but facts are facts. The Russians routinely engage in deception whether putting large balloons in fields that resemble military hardware or claiming via RT that Belgium is actually responsible for bombing Aleppo.
It is downright careless to state that journalists are not responsible for corroborating sources. That’s exactly what got us into the Iraq war. Ask Judith Miller how that worked out for her.
“1st, I dont beg, OMeara Sanders tweeted ..She’s right, she just lies and steals..doctor the books.. Remember Burlington College.. she changed the pledges amounts, no one else did it, just her, then she walked off with $250,000. Don’t believe anything that comes out her mouth..
Yeah right, Tiki. Russia is the real enemy. Look! Squirrel!