On the October 23, 2016 episode of State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook was asked point blank about his relationship with Bob Creamer, one of two Democratic operatives caught on tape talking about instigating violence at a Trump rally in Scott Foval's case. Here is that portion of the transcript:
TAPPER: Two — we talked about this before the last debate, but two Democratic operatives, Robert Creamer and Scott Foval, were caught on tape talking about instigating violence at a Trump rally in Foval's case.
The last time we spoke, you said any violence is unacceptable. Have you looked into whether or not Democratic operatives paid by the Democratic National Committee were actually instigating these horrific actions, these violent actions we saw at Trump rallies? That's — I'm sure you would agree, if that's true, that's really offensive.
MOOK: Well, violence is unacceptable. These individuals no longer have a relationship with the DNC. They have never had a relationship with the Clinton campaign.
And my understanding is that the events that are referenced happened, I think, in February of last year. They didn't have a contract with the DNC until June.
But, putting that all aside, this was, again, a video that was leaked out for the purpose of damaging the campaign. It's edited, so we don't know what the full context is. And there is — there's no evidence whatsoever that we have been able to find that anyone ever did anything like this when they were working for the DNC.
TAPPER: But, certainly, even if they weren't working for the DNC, if they were Democrats and they were instigating violence, this is horrific.
MOOK: It's unacceptable for anyone from either party to do that. But, again, no one who was working for the DNC or the Clinton campaign was doing that. This is again an attempt by Donald Trump to distract from the real issues of this campaign. He's spiraling after his last debate, and he doesn't want to talk about substance.
In this recent Wikileaks email from the John Podesta files, Michael Lux of Progressive Strategies states in an email to Neera Tanden, a political activist, domestic policy adviser and the President of Center for American Progress, Lux has this to say:
Hey Neera,
Just wanted to pass along this note I sent to Bob Creamer, who as you may know is consulting for the DNC and is close to Robby Mook. Wanted to pass it along to you as well, hoping you won’t take offense because I feel some urgency about this. You and Podesta are a great bridge to the DC, more establishment oriented progressive world, but I just feel like the campaign is making a mistake not doing stronger outreach to grassroots/netroots progressives. And while I don’t think it will cause them to lost the primary, I do worry it makes everything tougher in that process, and it makes bringing everyone in (and getting them excited) after Bernie loses that much harder.Am worried and frustrated, so take it with a grain of salt…
Gayla – follow me @Gayla and on Facebook
