Wikileaks emails show Hillary Clinton's staff thought Mario Rubio was the new Obama - and didn't see Donald Trump as a threat at all
A new batch of Wikileaks emails highlighting Hillary Clinton's campaign were released last week and show that the first GOP candidate the Democrats saw as a threat wasn't Donald Trump but Marco Rubio.
At 43, the Florida Senator was the youngest Republican in a crowded field of 17 candidates and was seen by Clinton's advisers as similar to Obama, who bested Clinton in 2008 with his calls for a move away from the old guard politicians.
Wikileaks claims the emails come from the hacked account of campaign chairman John Podesta.
Neither Podesta or Clinton have denied their authenticity.
'It’s interesting to compare/contrast with Obama 08,' a staffer wrote to Podesta, referring to Rubio saying, 'Yesterday is over, and we are never going back' in a campaign speech.
The staffer wondered if the statement was directed at Clinton, and emails bounced back and forth about whether to respond, but in the end they decided to let it lie.
'Don’t see reason to react here,' campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri wrote, according to The Daily Beast.
Agreed. Let them take it as an attack on Bush,' responded political consultant Mandy Grunwald.
While the Clinton campaign may have decided not to hit back at what might have been a dig at Clinton, staffers clearly saw him as the one to watch.
'He gives a good speech, and sounded much more reasonable, populist and accessible than much of the rest of the GOP field,' wrote public relations maven Christina Reynolds, words that could have been used to describe the approach Obama took to beat Clinton.
'Felt more like an inspiring Democratic speech than a GOP candidate, outside of foreign policy, repealing Obamacare and choice. Lots of references to 'our generation’ (i.e. Him and younger voters) vs. 'their generation' (them being us, Jeb, his opponents, Washington).'
One staffer noted that Rubio's speeches were reminiscent of one Obama made when he said, 'This election is not just about what laws we will pass. It is a generational choice about what kind of country we will be.'
When Rubio tweeted that Clinton wanted to 'reset' policy with Cuba, the staff came up with a response tweet meant to make Rubio's foreign look out of date.
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