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Wikileaks Podesta Emails: ‘Clintons Won’t Forget What Their Friends Have Done,’ Clinton Presses Illinois To Move Primary As ‘A Favor’

By Tara West
Published on: 13:43 PST, Oct 16, 2016

A new Wikileaks email dump shows that Clinton campaigners were pushing heavily for Illinois to push back their primary date as a “favor” to Clinton. The campaign made it clear that if Illinois lawmakers would follow through with the change that the “Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done.” Furthermore, it was to be pressed upon the state that if they did this favor for Clinton, they would receive a delegate “bonus” from the DNC of 10 to 20 percent.

Back in November of 2014, Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook sent an email to Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. Mook was highlighting the importance of ensuring a bill to change the primary date in Illinois was passed before it was too late. Mook noted that the move would help squash Republican momentum following the South’s Super Tuesday.

“The overall goal is to move the IL primary out of mid March, where they are currently a lifeline to a moderate Republican candidate after the mostly southern Super Tuesday. IL was a key early win for Romney in 12.”

The idea was that if the primary could be pushed out further, it could help “influence” a big northeast primary in April.

“Our preference would be for them to move all the way to May, but if they at least move to April 12 or April 19 they will have the day to themselves and presumably garner a lot of coverage. They will also be influencing a big northeast primary day on April 26.”

However, Mook claimed that getting Illinois lawmakers to go along with the change would be hard even with the offer to give them more delegates should they move later in the primary season. In fact, Illinois was offered a 10 percent increase in delegates if they moved their primary to April and a 20 percent bonus if they would move to May. Though they had incentive to move, Mook claimed the state felt “neglected” by the Obama administration and that ensuring the bill passed would “take some pushing.”

It was suggested that the idea be presented to Illinois as a favor to “Clinton,” not Obama. Mook told Podesta that they should approach the situation by pointing out that it was Hillary asking for the help, not Obama, and that “the Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done for them.”

“As we discussed, they don’t really care about being helpful and feel forgotten and neglected by POTUS. The key point is that this is not an Obama ask, but a Hillary ask. And the Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done for them. It would be helpful to feel out what path, if any, we have to get them to yes. This will probably take some pushing.”

Despite the urging from the Clinton campaign and the offer of extra delegates, Illinois declined to move forward with the bill, and their primary remained in March. According to RT, “Clinton won 25,000 votes and 2 delegates more than Bernie Sanders, while Trump carried the majority of Republican delegates.”

What do you think about the Clinton campaign pushing for Illinois to move their primary date in a bid to help take away momentum from the Republican party? What do you think Mook meant when he said the “Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done for them.”

[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Photo]

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