Clinton Aides Considered Lauding Comcast/TWC Defeat in Quartz Piece Last Year
Aides to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton apparently considered lauding federal regulators for blocking Comcast's attempted buy of Time Warner Cable last year in a Clinton opinion piece that ultimately appeared in Quartz Oct. 20, 2015. That’s according to new…
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emails released by WikiLeaks Tuesday, the result of an apparent hack of campaign manager John Podesta’s email account that U.S. intelligence officials believe involves the Russian government. “Should we applaud the FCC and Justice blocking the Comcast-Time/Warner merger?” asked Clinton adviser Mandy Grunwald in an Oct. 19 email reviewing a draft of the piece. Traveling press secretary Nick Merrill responded within the hour, addressing Kristina Costa, the aide who first circulated the draft requesting edits: “As the boyfriend of an FCC staffer who helped block that merger, yes. Kristina, her name is Val if you could please compliment her by name.” A few minutes later, Clinton aide Michael Shapiro weighed in and referred to an exchange he and Clinton domestic policy adviser Sara Solow had with Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen, who has donated thousands of dollars to Clinton's bid: “I think we were trying to keep this as a diagnosis of what's wrong with capitalism systemically, rather than naming specific folks. Sara and I talked to David Cohen today to give a heads up -- and our sense was we'd get deeper into broadband concentration specifically once we do our technology innovation agenda, rather than to some extent previewing or preempting it here.” That Quartz piece last year detailed Clinton’s desire for robust antitrust enforcement and mentioned priorities such as retaining strong net neutrality rules, but no reference to Comcast/TWC was included in the final version. Gonring, Spahn President Andy Spahn emailed Podesta in February to give “a head’s up” of a Senate letter to federal regulators from signers including Clinton primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., “calling for higher scrutiny of the Charter-Time Warner deal,” acquisitions of TWC and Bright House Networks that ultimately cleared regulators. “It's not a surprising development, and we don't anticipate the letter getting much play, but it could come up on your end given Sanders' involvement,” Spahn told Podesta. “Please keep us in the loop if it becomes an issue for you. Happy to get you or someone on your team more information if need be.”