Subject: Re: Taxes/health records rollout
From: Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>
To: Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
Cc: Huma Abedin <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Cheryl Mills <[email-masked]>, Heather Samuelson <[email-masked]>, Robby Mook <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, Nick Merrill <[email-masked]>, Tony Carrk <[email-masked]>, Christina Reynolds <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2015 01:24:37 -0400

HRC has approved this version of the statement. Is everyone else good with
it?  Heather and Tony, you want to do one more fact check?

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:18 AM, Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
wrote:

> The print stories on Cuba will largely be pre-written in the morning based
> on excerpts that we are providing tonight (Dan has gotten HRC signoff on
> them already for this purpose). The reporters will do some tiddying up of
> the stories as the speech is delivered/completed, but they will largely be
> filed as she goes on.
>
> In terms of TV, the first stories on health won't pop until 2. 1 pm is
> just when we will quietly approach the reporters. So that gives a window
> for the cables to (a) take the speech live possibly, and (b) for midday
> cable shows like Andrea Mitchell to talk about it afterwards (she will be
> live from outside the speech venue).
>
> With all that said, we can slide back the time for the first health
> stories to hit from 2 to 3 or so if that makes people more comfortable.
>
> On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:10 AM, Huma Abedin <[email-masked]>
> wrote:
>
>> since we are now doing health 1 hour after she finishes Cuba speech, will
>> that totally drown out any stories about her speech?
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:07 AM, Brian Fallon <[email-masked]
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> *ROLLOUT PLAN FOR TAX/HEALTH RECORDS FOR FRIDAY, JULY 31*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Round 1*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *At 1 PM: *Pitch the first round of stories to the travelling press
>>> corps (AP, Politico, WSJ, WaPo, etc) with a 2 pm embargo.  For these
>>> stories, we will:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ·         Provide the full text of HRC’s physician’s letter,
>>> summarizing that she is in excellent health and is medically fit to perform
>>> the duties of President. We will push that she is the FIRST presidential
>>> candidate to release this info.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ·         Also indicate that the tax returns will be posted later in
>>> the day.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> o   In describing that the tax returns are forthcoming, we will stress
>>> that the  amount of our disclosure will better Jeb’s in three key ways:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 1.      TOTAL YEARS OF RETURNS: Jeb made a big deal of releasing 33
>>> years of returns, a record for a presidential candidate.  Today we are
>>> posting the Clintons’ returns from 2007-2014 on our website.  The returns
>>> for ’92-2006 were already available online, and 1977-1991 were reported on
>>> extensively when they were made available.  Today’s release means that
>>> Hillary Clinton has made 38 years of returns available to the press over
>>> the course of her career.
>>>
>>> 2.      SPEECH INCOME: In addition to her returns, Hillary Clinton is
>>> releasing itemized income amounts for each speech delivered by her and
>>> President in 2013. (She has already done it for 2014 and the early part of
>>> 2015). Jeb did not do this.
>>>
>>> 3.      INCOME SOURCES THAT PASSED THROUGH LLC: HRC will also itemize
>>> the income that went through her and the President’s LLC entities. Jeb has
>>> refused to disclose the clients from whom he derived income that passed
>>> through his LLC known as Jeb Bush and Associates.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We expect the stories that pop at 2 pm to have headlines such as
>>> “CLINTON IN ‘EXCELLENT HEALTH,’ MEDICAL RECORDS SAY” … “CLINTON RELEASES
>>> HEALTH REPORT” ... "CLINTON CAMP AIMS TO ONE-UP BUSH IN DISCLOSING
>>> FINANCES". The lede of most of these stories will be the health records
>>> since they are being released in full, but the lower paragraphs of the
>>> stories will focus on how the campaign says it will improve upon Jeb Bush’s
>>> level of disclosure when the tax returns emerge.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Round 2*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *At 3 PM: *We will provide the travelers list with the toplines of
>>> Clinton’s 2014 tax returns, emphasizing their effective tax rates (both
>>> federal and state-federal, combined). We will also provide advance text of
>>> the statement from HRC about how the wealthy – a category in which she
>>> includes herself – ought to pay their fair share, not seek to shrink or
>>> shirk their obligations.  We will provide these materials on embargo until
>>> 4 pm.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We expect the headlines from this round to include: “CLINTONS PAID xx%
>>> RATE IN 2014” … “CLINTON, RELEASING RETURNS, SAYS WEALTHY SHOULD PAY MORE.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Round 3*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *At 4 pm*: Concurrent with the Round 2 stories popping, a webpage will
>>> go live onhillaryclinton.com. There, the following materials will be
>>> listed:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> o   Intro paragraph explaining what we are posting
>>>
>>> o   HRC statement
>>>
>>> o   Links to:
>>>
>>> §  2007-2014 returns
>>>
>>> §  Itemized speech income from 2013
>>>
>>> §  Physician’s letter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We will send out a brief release providing reporters with the link to
>>> this page. From this point on, reporters will dig into specific details in
>>> search of negative storylines, and re-write the Round 1 and Round 2 stories
>>> to reflect the additional detail. Among the storylines we expect reporters
>>> to zero in on once they dive into the full returns:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ·         The actual income amounts (to the dollar) reported by the
>>> Clintons for 2014, and cumulatively for the eight years reported.
>>> (Previously, their incomes only needed to be stated as a range under the
>>> Personal Financial Disclosure Form). Using this figure, reporters will
>>> dwell on the Clintons’ sheer wealth.
>>>
>>> ·         The fact of HRC’s LLC entity. Again, we will try to put the
>>> focus on how we are going beyond what Jeb did in disclosing all the income
>>> sources for this LLC, but the fact of it will be new to reporters.
>>>
>>> ·         The actual income amount earned by WJC from his consulting
>>> contracts, especially Laureate.
>>>
>>> ·         Reporters will also scrutinize the 2013 speech list for
>>> overlap between speech hosts and campaign/Foundation donors that could fuel
>>> “pay-to-play” storylines.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Despite these inevitable angles, based on the framing performed in the
>>> earlier rounds of stories, we will have given ourselves the best possible,
>>> “fighting” chance of promoting the most helpful storylines (i.e., the
>>> superlative of being the first candidate to release her health records, the
>>> Clintons’ high effective tax rate, their call for a more progressive tax
>>> code that asks wealthy individuals like themselves to pay more, the
>>> heightened transparency of HRC’s tax returns as compared to Jeb’s, etc).
>>>
>>
>>
>