Hillary Clinton’s Coke Problem

DC: When Hillary Clinton expressed her support back in April for a hefty soda tax proposed by Philadelphia’s mayor, Coca-Cola felt betrayed, and they let the Clinton campaign know it.

“Really??? After all we’ve done?” was one Coca-Cola bigwig’s response to Capricia Marshall, a longtime Clinton crony and major campaign fundraiser whose hacked emails were released on Thursday by the website DC Leaks.

But that initial bout of anger gave way to coordination between the world’s largest beverage manufacture and the Clinton campaign. Other emails released in the leak show that Coca-Cola executives developed an action plan to help ensure that the soda tax proposal “would not be pushed further” by Clinton.

The emails provide a rare look into a major company’s interactions with a political campaign. They also raise numerous questions about whether Coca-Cola’s lucrative financial relationship with Clinton and Marshall helped the company convince the campaign to back off the candidate’s support for the soda tax.

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