WikiLeaks email: Clinton campaign chief acknowledged Planned Parenthood videos ‘do hurt’

Shortly after the Center for Medical Progress released undercover videos of Planned Parenthood employees appearing to negotiate the price of aborted fetal body parts, an email purportedly sent by a Clinton campaign staffer acknowledged that the tapes “do hurt.”

According to WikiLeaks, on July 23, 2015, Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards sent an email to Clinton campaign chief John Podesta with the subject line “Thanks.”

“Yup,” Podesta replied. “Took a little convincing. The tapes do hurt.”

According to MSNBC, that same day, Clinton defended Planned Parenthood at a campaign event in South Carolina.

“For more than a century, Planned Parenthood has provided essential services for women,” Clinton said. “And I think it is unfortunate that Planned Parenthood has been the object of such a concerted attack for so many years. And it’s really an attack against a woman’s right to chose.”

Just days before, the Center for Medical Progress had released its second video, in which Dr. Mary Gatter, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Medical Directors' Council president, appears to haggle over the price of aborted fetal body parts.

“Let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, then it’s fine, if it’s still low, then we can bump it up,” Gatter said. “I want a Lamborghini.”

Clinton has offered her support to Planned Parenthood throughout her campaign, and the organization endorsed her for president during the Democratic primary.

Clinton delivered her first speech after securing her party’s nomination for president to a meeting of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the lobbying arm of the nation’s largest abortion provider.