The entire Clinton Clan have a long history of manufacturing optics. Either by paying supporters to seem unaffiliated, genuine or grassroots – or by seeding protests against their political opponents to give the appearance of genuine controversy/protest. The latest example of a Veteran Protest at Trump Tower is the latter.
The Washington Post wrote a story last week questioning Donald Trump’s fundraiser for veterans. The Clinton campaign organized a phone call with campaign activists to stimulate ideas to stir up the controversy.
The Daily Beast caught wind of the manufactured protest effort:
[…] The Clinton campaign swiftly organized a conference call for Saturday, led by the Clinton campaign’s veterans and military families outreach director, Jonathan Murray. According to one of the people on that call, participants were told that the Clinton campaign should not be seen viewed as behind the organizer of the protest.
At Monday’s protest, Marine veteran and Clinton supporter Alexander McCoy served as a spokesman for the demonstrators—and went to great lengths to hide the Clinton campaign’s involvement with organizing the demonstration.
“We’re not affiliated with any campaign, we’re not affiliated with any organization,” McCoy told reporters, saying the protesters used “grassroots organizing techniques, we came together over social media.”
McCoy later told The Daily Beast he reached out to the Clinton campaign to obtain press contacts but denied that Clinton staffers had been involved in organizing the event.
Then, reached by phone after the event, McCoy acknowledged that the Clinton campaign organized the conference call bringing together possible attendees to the protest.
The Clinton campaign initially played down its role in the event, but Murray later said in a statement to The Daily Beast: “[W]e were more than happy to lend some logistical support to the activists who organized today’s protest and we’ll be happy to do the same for any other veterans who want to speak out against Trump’s shameful disrespect.” (read more)
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