Hillary Clinton has a political reputation for sticking to the script, but hacked emails released by WikiLeaks reveal just how closely the Democratic candidate stayed to her talking points.
In a Jan. 11 conversation, Dan Schwerin, director of speechwriting for Clinton, provided Campaign Chairman John Podesta, consultant Mandy Grunwald and others with talking points prepared for Clinton ahead of a call in to MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes” show.
The email outlined how to respond to a question about her tax proposal.
The prepared remarks that follow match virtually word-for-word with her appearance later the same day.
The text prepared by the campaign said: "As you know, Chris, right now, the super-wealthy and big corporations are using every trick in the book to game the system, to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes. And that`s just not right. So, today, I am proposing adding what I`m calling a new 'fair share' surcharge on multimillionaires and closing loopholes to make it harder to game the system."
The only difference in her opening comments was she started with "well, you know," instead of "as you know." The next two paragraphs drafted by her team mirror her spoken remarks on MSNBC.
Clinton’s diligent preparation extended to interviews with entertainment hosts. An internal memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon earlier this month shows the campaign was provided ahead of time with the exact questions that would be asked during a February interview on “The Steve Harvey Show.”
“During this segment Steve will take a trip down memory lane with YOU to talk about the different moments of YOUR life displayed in the photographs below,” the memo noted.
The scripting was not limited to one-one-one interviews.
Another email from March 7 shows a Clinton staffer offering advice to Podesta on scripting chants at a Clinton rally.
“Wonder if tomorrow night, we should be more purposeful about generating the ‘U-S-A, U-S-A' chants during her riff about the need for togetherness and unity … with people holding the little American flags.”
Podesta said he “really liked” that idea.
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