WikiLeaks on Wednesday released its fourth batch of emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta — a document dump of 1,193 emails it claims to be from the Democratic National Committee’s servers illegally hacked earlier this year.
Conservative news organizations are running wild with reports, while The Atlantic published a story that essentially says the emails simply show a politician acting political. There are thousands of documents and WikiLeaks allows readers to search Podesta’s emails by key term, file name or even user email address.
More reports are expected as reporters sift through the data. In the meantime, stories are surfacing that Clinton staffers mocked Catholics and news reporters displayed bias. Regardless of what side of the aisle you fall on, here are eight things you need to know:
1. What is CNN’s role?
Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile, a former CNN contributor and Bill Clinton campaign adviser, emailed a Hillary Clinton campaign employee a question that was going to be asked at the CNN Democratic town hall in advance, according to one leaked email.
“I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did,” Brazile said in a statement Tuesday, while a CNN spokesperson also said the network never gave questions out in advance.
For what it’s worth, one of CNN’s biggest rivals, Fox News host Megyn Kelly, said on her show Tuesday she can’t imagine this being true.
“I cannot imagine anyone at CNN ever leaking a question to anyone. It would be the height of unethical,” Kelly said.
2. Did CNBC have a biased GOP debate moderator?
New York Times contributor and CNBC host John Harwood mocked Donald Trump in emails to Podesta. Other emails show that Harwood felt sympathetic when the Times published stories that were damming to Clinton.
This could be an issue because Harwood moderated CNBC’s GOP debate last year and, you know, debate moderators are supposed to be fair and unbiased.
A CNBC spokesperson declined to comment.
3. “F— these assholes”
An email appears to show a note from the head of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tandem, telling Clinton campaign communication director Jennifer Palmieri to “F— these assholes,” in reference to The New York Times, according to Mediaite.
4. Clinton staffers mocked religion
In an email to Podesta under the subject line, “Conservative Catholicism,” Center for American Progress senior fellow John Halpin described some church members’ practices as an “amazing bastardization of the faith” and mocked 21st Century Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch for raising his children Catholic, according to the Catholic News Agency.
“They must be attracted to the systemic thought and severely backward gender relations,” Halpin wrote, according to Fox News Insider.
Podesta does not respond to the email, but Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri did, according to WikiLeaks: “I imagine they think it the is the most socially acceptable, politically conservative religion — their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has called on Hillary Clinton to “sanction her bigoted chiefs.”
5. Is it all Russia’s fault?
Signs certainly point toward Vladimir Putin’s government as responsible for the DNC hack — and the slow-drip release of documents purporting to be from the group.
“The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations,” the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement last week.
Brazile issued her own statement: “We are in the process of verifying the authenticity of these documents because it is
6. How does Podesta feel?
“I’ve been involved in politics for nearly five decades,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “This definitely is the first campaign that I’ve been involved with in which I’ve had to tangle with Russian intelligence agencies… who seem to be doing everything that they can on behalf of our opponent.”
7. More information will come
This has two meanings, as reporters will continue to unearth information in the previously released data dump but WikiLeaks has also promised additional email leaks. Stay tuned…
8. Donald Trump loves it
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