In email, Clinton ally ‘petrified’ GOP would nominate anyone but Trump

A left-leaning columnist and ally of Hillary Clinton privately worried in March that the former secretary of State would lose to any Republican candidate the GOP chose as its nominee for president — except Donald Trump.

“Right now I am petrified that Hillary is almost totally dependent on Republicans nominating Trump,” Brent Budowsky, who writes a column for The Hill, told Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in a March email.

{mosads}“[S]he has huge endemic political weaknesses that she would be wise to rectify…..even a clown like Ted Cruz would be an even money bet to beat and this scares the hell of out me,” he said, referring to the Texas Republican senator.

The remark was contained in an email stolen from Podesta’s inbox and published online by WikiLeaks on Monday morning. The anti-secrecy group has so far released approximately 4,000 emails it claims were from Podesta’s email account in two separate tranches. Intelligence officials have suggested that the organization is being used to funnel material stolen by Russian hackers who intend to disrupt the American political process.

Publication of the message irked Republican critics of Trump, who, among other criticisms, have repeatedly warned that the real estate mogul is blowing the party’s chance to keep Clinton out of the White House.

This warning bell was sounded in August 2015 by GOP politicos. Their expertise was dismissed as “establishment.” https://t.co/KkYuUw0VTC

— John Noonan (@noonanjo) October 10, 2016

Attn: @seanhannity @IngrahamAngle @ericbolling https://t.co/97p9cCRUqH

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) October 10, 2016