Sen. Whitehouse named in WikiLeaks email dump

By Bianca Buono

bbuono@abc6.com

@BBuonoABC6

In the latest bunch of emailed dumped by WikiLeaks, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse came up. An email shows a back and forth between him and a Hillary Clinton staffer.

Whitehouse was discussing Clinton’s former progressive rival Bernie Sanders. He suggested linking Sanders to Republican Karl Rove, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration. Whitehouse said in part, “Forget who’s most progressive; shift focus to who can win in November. Cite Karl Rove backing Bernie with attack ads funded by Wall Street…”

"What Senator Whitehouse was doing was giving his advice about what he thought was the most likely way to win. And nine times out of ten, it was pretty good advice. This one campaign was it good advice ask me again next Tuesday,” said James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University.

This isn’t the first time Whitehouse has been named in a leaked email. Back in September, his name was mentioned in one of Colin Powell’s emails where he allegedly talked about Hillary Clinton’s health. In the email, Whitehouse says Clinton could barely climb podium steps. In an interview with ABC6 in September, Whitehouse said he didn’t remember ever saying that.

These WikiLeaks emails are coming out as the FBI is reviewing new emails from one of Clinton’s closest aides. In the latest ABC News poll, Donald Trump has taken the lead over Clinton by a single point.

"Whether or not that’s had any effect on voters at all isn’t clear. But we know it’s had a huge impact on the campaigns,” said Morone.

Whitehouse was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.

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