De Blasio to Podesta: Clinton Wall Street Speeches Are ‘Hard to Defend’

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had no problem defending Hillary Clinton publicly over her decision not to release transcripts of her paid speeches to financial companies, but privately, he found those speeches “hard to defend,” according to an email released by WikiLeaks Thursday.

“I’m trying, brother, but this one is hard to defend,” de Blasio said in an email addressed to John Podesta on March 2, while forwarding a local news story about his defense of Clinton during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.

The hosts asked de Blasio whether he thought Clinton should release the transcripts of the paid speeches, and he responded saying, “I don’t care about those speeches. I care about what’s in her platform.”

“I think it is much more important that she challenged Wall Street when the financial crisis and economic crisis was beginning, and I think it’s much more important that she’s saying right now she’s going to put additional restrictions on Wall Street that we still don’t have,” de Blasio said on the show.

De Blasio has stumped for Clinton on the campaign trail for over a year after he belatedly endorsed her candidacy.

De Blasio expressed his support for Clinton privately, well before his public endorsement of her, according to the hacked emails.

The Clinton campaign did not confirm the authenticity of the emails, saying the Russian government hacked them in order to tip the election in Donald Trump’s favor.