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Rachel Maddow: Former Clinton Spokesman on How ‘Weaponized’ Hacks Looked Inside the Campaign (Video)

The first use of the leaked emails was ”sloppy,“ while the second much more ”user friendly,“ said former Clinton campaign National Spokesman Glenn Caplin

| March 18, 2017 @ 12:25 AM

A lot of ink, virtual and real, has been spilled examining the link between Russian intelligence, the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Convention, and alleged collusion by Republicans associated with the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

While the true picture of what happened is far from clear, former Clinton campaign National Spokesman Glenn Caplin appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” Friday to break down precisely what he believes happened during the election.

“The coverage was more about what was in the emails as opposed to why these emails existed” and who was distributing them, said Caplin.

Also Read: Bill Maher Calls Rachel Maddow's Trump Tax Scoop 'A Big Nothing Burger'

Caplin, who joined the Clinton campaign in June 2016, detailed how very quickly his job became understanding the ins and outs of the DNC hack. As he described it, the information gained from the DNC hack was at first deployed in a “sloppy” manner via the obscure site DCLeaks.com. The large info dump, which Caplin said contained Russian metadata, was difficult to search and as a result, failed to make much of an impact on the campaign.

However, a month later, the hacked information began to be distributed by WikiLeaks in a much more “user-friendly” fashion. The information rollout was also better timed to cause maximum damage. Further, this is the period when available information suggested involvement by Russian intelligence acting in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton. As Caplin put it to Maddow, it was unprecedented how the hacked information was “weaponized.”

Maddow and Caplin were later joined by former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, who concurred with Caplin’s assessment of the events.

Also Read: Rachel Maddow, DCReport Sites Crash Under Barrage of Trump Tax Traffic

However, when asked if they thought, as many have suggested, that members of the Trump campaign were complicit in the way the hacked emails were used during the election, both were largely diplomatic.

Agreeing that the timing of Trump campaign behavior was somewhat coincidental, they stuck to the line that the American people “deserves to know” the full truth, with Mook calling for a bipartisan effort to do so.

The full video has not been posted online, but the first segment, featuring Caplin, can be watched above.

12 Comments About Donald Trump These Pundits Must Regret Now (Photos)

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Talking heads from Nate Silver to Rachel Maddow once dismissed the de facto GOP presidential nominee as a sideshow

FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver famously predicted all 50 states of the 2012 election -- but when it came to forecasting Donald Trump's chances, he was completely wrong.

He's not the only one. Political pundits, newscasters and celebrities have doubted Trump since he announced his candidacy last June. They've called him everything from a "comical figure" to a "blowhard" and compared him at times to Hitler.

They've also badly underestimated the chances of the now de facto GOP nominee.

Here are 12 of the most regrettable remarks made by talking heads about the man for whom all bets should now be off.

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