Clinton camp changed their mind on soda tax after being lobbied by Coca-Cola

You have to hand it to the Clintons, because when it comes to forming the basis of their policy positions, they are extremely consistent: Whoever pays them the most money will get what they want.

In the spring, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s soda tax proposal during a roundtable on gun violence, but her endorsement sent shock waves through the board room at soda giant Coca-Cola. One of the company’s executives, Clyde Tuggle, emailed a pair of Clinton associations – Capricia Marshall and Sara Latham – an article from The Daily Caller containing Clinton’s remarks with this note added: “Really??? After all we have done. I hope this has been falsely reported.”

His email was disclosed with scores of others that have been released by the hacktivist site DC Leaks. The email was purportedly lifted from Marshall’s account earlier this month, Politico reported.

The email responses that ensued between officials at the soda giant and Clinton campaign insiders reveals the deep (financial) connections between Coca-Cola and the Democratic nominee. Specifically, the soda maker began to lean on the candidate in a bid to get her to take back her apparent support for the soda tax – which of course would not be in the best economic interests of any soda maker.

At the time they received their emails from Tuggle, Marshall and Latham were Coca-Cola consultants and did not have formal involvement with Hillary’s campaign. But after getting the email late one evening, the longtime Clinton allies and friends took action. The following morning, according to the email exchanges that have been released, Marshall contacted Latham, writing, “Are you looking into this and I should sit tight?” Latham replied: “Yep. I’ll look into this [this morning], so don’t ask HRC – yet…;-) Xoxox.”

By noon that day, Katherine Rumbaugh, Coca-Cola North America’s VP of government relations, had in her hands a confirmation from Clinton’s senior policy advisor, Jake Sullivan, that his boss was indeed not hip on the soda tax plan. Pay for play, you see.

As The Daily Caller noted further, Coca-Cola has given between $5-$10 million to the Clinton Foundation. And Wendy Clark. A former Coca-Cola executive, took leave from the company last year in order to help the Clinton campaign’s marketing and social media efforts.

Also, the company’s CEO, Muhtar Kent, is a Clinton campaign donor.

Marshall has worked in Clinton-land since 1992, when Hillary’s hubby, Bill Clinton, ran for the presidency and won. She also worked at the Clinton State Department.

Previously leaked emails have revealed that Hillary Clinton is nothing more than a political chameleon, taking varying positions on issues based on who is paying her.

Sources:

Politico.com

NewsTarget.com

DailyCaller.com

NYPost.com