Clinton chairman: Tech community wants to know candidate is ‘on the level’

The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said influential people in Silicon Valley want to know that that the Democratic candidate is “on the level.”

During a 40-minute conversation at ReCode’s Code Conference, John Podesta said that support for Clinton within the technology community would build as she has more interaction with them. 

{mosads}”As the choice builds, we’ve gotten more support from technology leaders across Silicon Valley. And we welcome that, and we welcome conversation with her, that they want to know she’s on the level, and that takes a lot of being able to interact — not one-on-one, but in small groups,” he said. 

While Clinton has outraised other candidates among employees at major technology companies, many argue that her support in the industry is not at the level of President Obama when he was campaigning. 

“We’ll probably roll out a group of technology leaders who support her before the election and I think that’ll be a very impressive list of people who are serious leaders in this community,” he said. 

Podesta said Clinton is not “technically sophisticated,” but added there is a difference between that and knowing policy. 

“There’s technical sophistication and there is technical policy sophistication. I think those are two somewhat different things,” he said. “I don’t think she would ever argue that she is technically sophisticated. But she is technically understanding.”

He reiterated her use of a private email server during her time at the State Department has “definitely hurt her” and was a mistake. 

But he pointed to her policies on building a tech workforce and reforming the immigration system. He also noted her support for investment in research and development and her advocacy for the open internet around the world when at the State Department.