In 2015 Hillary Clinton was advised to quote Pope Francis’s words about the Armenian Genocide
“Quote the speech made by Pope Francis (regarding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide),” John Podesta, Campaign Chairman of Democratic nominee for the US president Hilary Clinton, wrote the following in response to the email of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan drafted ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Pursuant to one of Podesta’s emails leaked by Wikileaks, on 19 April 2015 John Podesta submitted an email to his colleagues reminding them that he 100th Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day would approach soon and the Armenian community would be looking for the candidate’s position on that important issue.
In the email leaked by Wikileaks, Podesta namely wrote the following: “Friday is the 100th Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. I presume the Armenian groups will be looking for a statement or a signal from the campaign on whether she will call it a "genocide" if she is elected president. As a Senator and candidate, she was unequivocal in recognizing the genocide. As Secretary of State, she did not use the term genocide but rather focused on future reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. Do you all agree that she should embrace the position she took as Senator and candidate, even though she did not take it as SecState? Do you all agree that we should just wait until we are asked as opposed to doing something proactive? Sorry to bother with this, but as you all know this matters enormously to Armenian-Americans.
Notably the lobbying company owned by Podesta has also concluded contracts with Ilham Aliyev's regime.