Subject: Re: Top Biden backer: Hillary Clinton will ‘die by 1,000 cuts’ on e-mail story
From: "Joshua Alcorn" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Schwerin, Eric" <[email-masked]>, "Snyder-Mackler, Alex" <[email-masked]>, "biden, beau" <[email-masked]>, "Biden, Hunter" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 19:49:26 -0500

I'm glad someone is willing to go on the record as a Biden Backer at this point. And double glad it's not Former Biden Staffer/Consultant. 

At the end of the day, like Eric says, I don't think this melts away when she announces. In fact, it probably only opens the doors to more questions - especially about the Foundation donors. One or two more things like this over the next 6-8 weeks and we've got ourselves a real problem.  

/ja
302-598-1885 (cell)

Sent from my iPhone, which is responsible for any typos. 

> On Mar 4, 2015, at 4:31 PM, [email-masked] wrote:
> 
> I agree with both of you - but "Biden backer" not helpful.
> 
> From: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
> To: "Joshua Alcorn" <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked], "Beau Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Ted Kaufman" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 4:29:36 PM
> Subject: Re: Top Biden backer: Hillary Clinton will ‘die by 1,000 cuts’ on e-mail story
> 
> And unless she publicly releases all of the emails on that account (or is forced by subpoena to do so) she will continue to be questioned about what is in them.  Like Romney and his taxes, I doubt she’ll ever release them willingly and she’ll fight a subpoena.  And people will assume that she won’t release them because there is something bad in them - whether there is or not. 
> 
> What’s strange to me is she knew this was coming and didn’t get ahead of it.   And Philippe Reines sending snarky emails to reporters questioning about this doesn’t help.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Eric D. Schwerin
> Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
> 1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
> Suite 705
> Washington, DC 20007
> (202) 333-1880
> [email-masked]
> P Consider the environment before printing this email.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mar 4, 2015, at 4:23 PM, Joshua Alcorn <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> He's right. What's her biggest vulnerability? I would argue, people don't trust her. Don't know that she's doing things with the Common (Wo)man in mind. Out for herself and her husband and family. That she's power hungry and a control freak. 
> This unforced error is all of those things, in one tidy package for the right and the media to latch on to. I think I saw it on Morning Joe - this is similar to Romney's taxes. Why? Because it gets to the root of everyone's suspicion of her. Those taxes hung around his neck. Not why he lost, but it made it hard for him to talk about anything else for months. 
> The fact that this ties back to Benghazi is even worse for her. And don't even get me started on the foundation $. 
> 
> /ja
> 302-598-1885 (cell)
> 
> Sent from my iPhone, which is responsible for any typos. 
> 
> On Mar 4, 2015, at 3:33 PM, [email-masked] wrote:
> 
> Top Biden backer: Hillary Clinton will ‘die by 1,000 cuts’ on e-mail story
> 
> Washington Post // Phillip Rucker
> 
> One of Vice President Biden's most prominent supporters said Wednesday that twin controversies swirling around Hillary Rodham Clinton should give Democrats serious pause about anointing her as the party's presidential nominee.
> Dick Harpootlian, a former Democratic Party chairman in South Carolina, home to an early and important presidential primary, said recent reports about Clinton's use of private e-mail to conduct government business and her family's charitable foundation accepting donations from foreign governments while she was secretary of state could be damaging to her likely 2016 presidential campaign.
> 
> "There’s always another shoe to drop with Hillary," Harpootlian said in an interview Wednesday. "Do we nominate her not knowing what’s in those e-mails?... If the e-mails were just her and her family and friends canoodling about fashion and what they’re going to do next week, that’s one thing. But the fact that she’s already turned e-mails to the Benghazi committee because she was doing official business on it means she’s going to die by 1,000 cuts on this one." 
> 
> The House Select Committee on Benghazi, which discovered Clinton's use of a personal e-mail account during its probe of the fatal 2012 terrorist attack on the State Department's consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is preparing to subpoena Clinton's private e-mails later Wednesday.
> 
> In the two days since The New York Times first reported on Clinton's e-mails, many Democrats have come to Clinton's defense. Clinton allies have argued that the story, which has Washington and cable television news atwitter, will not influence the way regular voters view Clinton months from now when they cast ballots.
> 
> But Harpootlian -- who has been an active and outspoken booster of a Biden 2016 candidacy -- said the foundation donations and e-mail stories have sparked chatter among South Carolina politicos about drafting other candidates into the Democratic primary. Referencing Biden specifically, he said, “I’ll tell you this: He ain’t got no e-mail problems. He ain’t got no foundation problems. What you see with Joe is what you get. There’s nothing hidden there.”
> 
> Harpootlian added, “The chatter down here is, 'Is this the best we can do?' Certainly everyone wants to give a woman a chance to lead this country, but is [Clinton] the woman? There are plenty of other women who would be competitive, whether it’s Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar or Kirsten Gillibrand.”
> 
> The three Democratic senators, from Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York respectively, have each ruled out a 2016 campaign.
> 
> Harpootlian said that throughout Clinton’s more than two decades in public life, she has had a “protective cocoon” of “sycophantic political operatives” around her, but that their response so far has been ham-handed at best.
> 
> "She better peel away the layers of protection and come out and talk about this," Harpootlian said. "Who were the e-mails to? What is this about? Why did you do it? Put it to bed. You can’t play rope-a-dope and be elected President of the United States.”
> 
>  
> 
>=2