Here’s How Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Will Cut Through the Noise and Get to the Facts

John Podesta
Hillary for America
3 min readMay 4, 2015

Hillary Clinton entered this race to fight for solutions that will help everyday Americans get ahead and stay ahead. Already, in the first days of her campaign, she hit the road to discuss these ideas with ordinary Americans. In Iowa, she described the need to get unlimited, anonymous money out of our politics — and promised to push for a constitutional amendment if that’s what it takes. In a speech last week in New York, she discussed her ideas for reforming our criminal justice system in order to repair the broken trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. And tomorrow, in a visit to Las Vegas, Hillary will discuss the need to enact comprehensive immigration reform to address an unsustainable system that leaves families living in fear and denies our economy the full benefit of their labor.

Republicans, meanwhile, are far less interested in discussing these important issues because they know their proposals are out of step with what most Americans need. Rather than focus on what truly matters in this campaign, Republicans seem to only want to distort Hillary Clinton’s record. It is clear that they have a two fisted strategy to try to undermine her, using unlimited dark money on the one hand and taxpayer funds on the other.

This strategy will not work, but that isn’t going to stop Republicans from trying. In recent weeks, the House Select Committee on Benghazi has signaled that it will allow proceedings drag into 2016, proving that they intend to turn what was once a legitimate inquiry into a partisan exercise. Now, within days of Hillary announcing her campaign for President, we are confronted with latest in a long list of partisan books attacking the Clintons.

That book, titled Clinton Cash, is written by a Republican operative-turned-blogger. Before even hitting the bookshelves, it has been discredited far and wide by observers on both the left and the right. The book has zero evidence to back up its outlandish claims; a Fox News interviewer sharply questioned the author on this point, noting “the advance publicity … oversold what you actually had.”

Even worse than the book’s lack of evidence is its rash of errors. ABC News documented several, causing the author to admit his mistakes and say he would plan to issue corrections.

While we will not be consumed by these kinds of attacks, we will also not let them go unchallenged. That’s why we are building a new one-stop shop to provide the facts about Hillary Clinton’s positions and her record. We are calling it “The Briefing.” You will be able to find information and it will serve as a hub that allows Hillary for America to cut through the partisan noise over the next 18 months and directly communicate with voters. This forum will provide the public with direct access to the facts on the positive policy agenda that Hillary will unveil over the course of campaign, as well as the facts needed to debunk false attacks.

The “Briefing” web page will be accompanied by a suite of co-branded social media platforms — from Twitter to Vine, YouTube to Facebook. These platforms will enable the campaign to deliver fact-based messages about Hillary Clinton and the work of the Clinton Foundation to the public. This plan will also enable us to organize our supporters and mobilize them to actively participate in challenging false attacks against Hillary’s record.

So, while Clinton Cash has already been debunked, we are clear-eyed about the fact that this will not be the last false set of allegations flung our way. We will stand ready to fight for a better future for everyday Americans and to swat back these unfair attacks from those invested in protecting a status quo that is stacked in favor of those at the top.

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John Podesta
Hillary for America

Founder of @amprog, @equitablegrowth; White House COS to Pres. @BillClinton. Fmr. Counselor to President Barack Obama. Chair of @HillaryClinton for America.