The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) found itself at the center of yet another controversy after a hacker leaked on Wednesday an internal party memo which advised candidates on how to handle situations when approached by the advocacy movement Black Lives Matter, as reported in The Washington Times.
The memo urged candidates to listen, but "don't offer support for concrete policy positions;" limit the number of activists who meet with staff; and never say "all lives matter," reports the Times.
The document, which was obtained and posted online on August 31 2016, by a mysterious hacker operating under the name Guccifer 2.0, was sent by Troy Perry, a former DCCC staffer, to the rest of the committee staff in November 2015.
Black Live Matter took to Facebook and Twitter to express their disappointment.
The group added that, "We expect that our elected officials will stop pacifying and take us seriously."
Mr. Perry, who now works for the Hillary Clinton campaign, had strictly mentioned that the document "should not be emailed or handed to anyone outside of the building," the Times reports.
DCCC staffers, who were handed a "do's and don't's" cheat sheet, were also advised to offer limited invitations for meetings with Black Lives Matter activists, and not to "offer support for concrete policy positions" about the movement.
Meanwhile, DCCC national press secretary Meredith Kelly issued a statement in support of Black Lives Matter, reading, "We will not allow this hacking to distract from our common goals nor disparage the BLM movement."
"The DCCC highly respects and values the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement," Ms. Kelly said. "In less than two years, BLM has evolved from three words into a political force that is changing and waking our nation.
"At the DCCC, we highly encourage our candidates to not only embrace the importance of this movement, but to meet with and listen to community activists to partner social change."
Democrats have endured a series of high-profile hacks during the 2016 campaign, most recently the Aug. 13 release of 2,500 internal documents by DCLeaks from billionaire donor George Soros' Open Society Foundations.
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