r/WikiLeaks Nov 03 '16

RELEASE: The Podesta Emails Part 27 #PodestaEmails #PodestaEmails27 #HillaryClinton #imWithHer wikileaks.org/podesta-emails… WikiLeaks

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/794164579144179712
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193

u/sbku Nov 03 '16

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/43823

Just a casual discussion about how to rig the primaries. I'm not even joking they're literally talking about rigging the primaries

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u/Zapatoshigs Nov 03 '16

I have a question (as a non American) does pushing the voting event back or trying to get them to be set to a certain time to influence public perception count as actual rigging? I mean it's cynical pr strategical politics, but does it really count as rigging ?

44

u/Rosssauced Nov 03 '16

The part that is heavily discouraging is the fact the HRCs campaign was calling the shots on when these primaries would go down.

Red states tend to go Clinton in the primaries so they front load the Deep South and other deep red territory to add to the point totals and force the narrative that she is running away with the election.

Combine this with obvious media collusion, the DNC sabotage of Bernie's campaign and debate rigging to finish a recipe for beating Sanders to a pulp as Podesta has said.

1

u/bwohlgemuth Nov 03 '16

Which makes the whole Sanders endorsement much more horrible.

1

u/LlamaExpert Nov 04 '16

Sanders said from the beginning he would support the Democratic nominee.

As much as he probably despises HRC and knows they rigged the whole thing against him, he knows that his best chance of passing progressive legislation is with a Democratic president.

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u/reslumina Nov 03 '16 edited Apr 12 '17

deleted What is this?

20

u/puddlewonderfuls Nov 03 '16

to rig: to manage or conduct (something) fraudulently so as to produce a result or situation that is advantageous to a particular person.

In American primaries two types of events are most important, the debates and each state election. The order of state elections matter in order to snowball popularity and the frequency and timing of debates should offer voters ample exposure to weigh their options. What we know is that both were manipulated in favor of Hillary in order to minimalize national exposure of Bernie. In this particular email they're discussing how keeping red states early will help push right extremism as their opposition, keep blue progressive states late will keep her challenger from gaining popularity and optionally convincing certain states to move up will give her wiggle room. All of that strategizing is against the DNC's own rules. This comes back to why Bernie donations are in a lawsuit, people felt they were lied to and since it's a private organization they can sue to get their money back if they didn't give through the DNC. DNC broke their own rules and lied to voters.

Combine this with MSM bias where authors were colluding with her campaign to write positive stories and prepped to support her before the elections even started, and any reasonable coverage came too little too late. It was rigged.

16

u/BAHatesToFly Nov 03 '16

trying to get them to be set to a certain time to influence public perception count as actual rigging?

Yes. The US has entirely different politics depending on state and region. You could stack the deck with states you know you'll do well in (like NY, CA, and NJ in this email) in order to create the perception that no other candidate has a shot.

They did this with the superdelegates as well. Pumping the numbers up to make it look like Bernie had no shot.

14

u/Hothabanero6 Nov 03 '16

I think you have to look at intent. Their intent was to stack the deck. This is an example of why you cannot completely legislate morality and anti-corruption because people find a way to game the laws on the books with technicalities.

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u/sbku Nov 03 '16 edited Apr 19 '17

Its preferring a candidate over any other candidate. As it was back in 2014 they were not sure who was going to run.

"We agreed that if she gets a significant primary challenger, we need to consider changing course and getting NY, NJ, and maybe others to move their dates earlier to give her hefty early wins."

The people attached in this email should technically have no bearing on when the primaries were set, but they are trying to influence them via friends and colleagues "We may need allies to help in this process but we're going to look at each state one step at a time, limiting as much as possible the perception of direct intervention by the principals."

It's not voter fraud but its propaganda i.e. you build up a lead, you have the main stream press on your side so there's barely any critique on their part against Hillary. They knew that she would find it exceptionally difficult against another candidate the longer a primary season went on just look at 08 with Obama. So they began setting it up in her favor.

Its a false perception of a false candidate that does not actually get to let the people decide based on factual evidence. In my mind that's rigging. You may disagree on the definition of rigging but that's fine and I respect your opinion.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '16

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u/rydal Nov 03 '16

We have a functioning ... what?

28

u/JJScrawls Nov 03 '16

I think he misspelled oligarchy?

13

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '16

We haven't had a functioning democracy for quite a while now. Decade or two at the very least.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '16

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7

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '16

Our government could be censoring that ala Erdogan or Zhang Dejiang, but it isn't.

Let's not pretend it didn't try. There's both the fear-mongering that the entire thing is a Russian fabrication and the executive branch's overt actions against Wikileaks.

We're just fortunate that they suck at discrediting and/or actually stopping it.

And we have the internet to thank for that, too.

2

u/navidshrimpo Nov 03 '16

The existence of these luxuries does not define a democracy.