Former Interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile is still making the rounds ahead of her book about the subject that will not die … the 2016 election. Heads recently spun after Brazile — who leaked debate questions to the Clinton campaign — said she found “proof” that the DNC “rigged” the nomination for Hillary Clinton. Now, the Washington Post digs into more Brazile claims, including how she considered replacing Hillary with Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket because she believed that Hillary’s campaign was “anemic.”
Brazile wrote that she was concerned about the “odor of failure” she smelled after Hillary grew overheated and almost fainted at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony. It must be noted that Brazile could not unilaterally replace Hillary, but she began to consider ways to do so, and Brazile felt that only Joe Biden (and Cory Booker) stood a chance of turning things around:
Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the process of removing Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine from the ticket after Clinton’s Sept. 11 collapse.
Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, “I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.”
The act of replacing Hillary less than two months out of the election is something that would have never happened, short of “death, resignation or disability of a nominee,” as the DNC’s own bylaws state. Instead, Hillary’s fainting spell simply prompted right-wing conspiracies about her health, which surely had far less impact on the election than James Comey’s nausea or the working class voters mentioned by Brazile. However, Michael Moore made the same point long ago, so Brazile’s not exactly timely with that talk.
Still, NBC News reports that Brazile brags in her book about being contacted by Biden after Hillary’s public collapse. “Gee, I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about?” she wrote. In response to all of Brazile’s claims, the “shocked” DNC has released this statement:
“We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health … We do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book.”
Exhausting, isn’t it? We shall soon find out whether (or not) anyone still wants to read about the election when Brazile’s book hits shelves this week.
UPDATE: Brazile has fired back at her critics while speaking on ABC’s This Week: “Go to hell. I’m going to tell my story.”
Former DNC chair @donnabrazile: For those who are telling me to shut up, I tell them “go to hell. I’m going to tell my story.” pic.twitter.com/9OEKFlmy68
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 5, 2017
(Via Washington Post & NBC News)