The daughter of a New York City man who died after he was put in a police chokehold blasted Hillary Clinton’s campaign Thursday when WikiLeaks revealed email conversations about using her father’s death to protest gun violence.
“I’m troubled by the revelation that you and this campaign actually discussed ‘using’ Eric Garner … Why would you want to ‘use’ my dad,” tweeted Erica Garner, who endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
Eric Garner died in 2014 after a police officer used a chokehold while attempting to arrest him for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally. A grand jury decided not to indict New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death and the case is being reviewed by the Justice Department, according to reports.
“I know we have Erica Garner issues but we don’t want to mention Eric at all? I can see her coming after us for leaving him out of the piece,” Clinton’s traveling press secretary Nick Merrill wrote in an email.
The conversation about possibly considering mentioning Garner in an editorial about gun violence became public in private emails illegally hacked by WikiLeaks. The Clinton campaign has not commented or verified the authenticity of the emails.
CNN has reached out to the Clinton campaign for response to Erica Garner’s tweets and have not yet gotten a response.
“I’m vey (sic) interested to know exactly what @CoreyCiorciari meant when he said ‘I know we have an Erica Garner problem’ in the #PodestaEmails19,” Garner tweeted.
Garner has been critical of President Barack Obama, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other politicians since becoming an activist against police brutality following her father’s death.
“These people will co opt anything to push their agenda. Police violence is not the same as gun violence,” she said.
Clinton staffer Maya Harris wrote that Garner should not be included as he was not killed by gun violence.
“I’m glad you had Maya on your team to explain why you won’t be USING my dad in you f—–g gun violence piece… Black woman saved your a–” Garner tweeted.