The former chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile says she seriously considered replacing Hillary Clinton with Joe Biden as the party’s 2016 nominee.
Brazile made the revelation in her bombshell new book, set to be released Tuesday, that details the so-called dysfunction in the Democratic Party.
She said she had secret deliberations to remove Clinton and her running mate Senator Tim Kaine as the party’s nominees in the aftermath of her fainting spell in New York in the September.
Brazile claims she had settled on Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Cory Booker as replacements to beat Donald Trump.
Former DNC chair Donna Brazile claims she considered replacing Hillary Clinton with Joe Biden as the party’s 2016 presidential nominee after her fainting spell in September 2016
However, she decided against it because she ultimately didn’t want to get in the way of the first woman to run for president.
‘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,’ she wrote in her book, in an excerpt obtained by the Washington Post on Saturday.
Also included in Brazile’s upcoming memoir is the dysfunction and mismanagement that she claims to have uncovered at the organization she was brought in to run after hacked emails revealed efforts by party insiders to tilt the scales toward Clinton.
Brazile, who was herself thrown into controversy when it was revealed she passed on debate questions to the Clinton camp, unloads on her predecessor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and discloses a smoking gun document in the form of a fundraising agreement that sent resources to the Clinton camp.
Brazile only learned of the party’s financial troubles in July after she was named interim chair after Wasserman Schultz stepped down, in a call with CFO Gary Gensler.
Brazile claims she had settled on Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Cory Booker as replacements to beat Donald Trump
Also included in Brazile’s (above in July 2016) memoir is the dysfunction and mismanagement that she claims to have uncovered at the organization she was brought in to run
‘What?’ I screamed. ‘I am an officer of the party and they’ve been telling us everything is fine and they were raising money with no problems,’ she writes that she told him.
Clinton’s fundraising took care of the remaining debt as part of an agreement that allowed her input on party finances and staffing prior to her winning the nomination for president.
A memo was signed by Clinton’s campaign and the DNC in August 2015 that established she would get some input in exchange for her financial support of the committee to help them repay a $24 million debt, NBC reports.
The details of the memo emerged after former Brazile made explosive claims in her book that Clinton had siphoned money out of the party and effectively took it over months before she captured her party’s nomination.
The memo, which emerged on Friday, stated that ‘(Hillary For America) personnel will be consulted and have joint authority over strategic decisions over the staffing, budget, expenditures, and general election related communications, data, technology, analytics, and research.’
It stated that the DNA had agreed to hire one of two candidates that the HFA had said was acceptable.
Details of a deal Hillary Clinton’s campaign made with the DNC in 2015 have emerged after it was claimed they were allowed input on party finances and staffing prior to her winning the nomination for president
The memo stated the arrangement concerned the general election, not the primary season, and that it wasn’t exclusive to the Clinton campaign – meaning it left the door open to other candidates to make similar arrangements.
‘Nothing in this agreement shall be construed to violate the DNC’s obligation of impartiality and neutrality through the Nominating process. All activities performed under this agreement will be focused exclusively on preparations for the General Election and not the Democratic Primary,’ the memo read.
‘Further we understand you may enter into similar agreements with other candidates.’
Brazile had alleged in her book that she had found ‘proof’ the 2016 Democratic primary was rigged in Clinton’s favor. She noted, however, that she believed no laws were violated.
The fundraising agreement, signed in August 2015 during the primary process, was unusual for an open seat.
Months later, Clinton’s chief challenger, independent Senator Bernie Sanders, signed his own agreement with the party.
In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump slammed a ‘crooked’ Clinton and accused her of ‘cheating’ and stealing her primary win over Sanders
In an expert of her book, Brazile alleged that before Clinton became the Democratic nominee, her campaign signed the joint fundraising agreement with the DNC and HVF, in which her campaign would finance the DNC in exchange for oversight from the Clinton campaign.
Usually, the nominee doesn’t take over fundraising until after they have accepted the nomination.
In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump slammed a ‘crooked’ Clinton and accused her of ‘cheating’ and stealing her primary win over Sanders.
‘I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right,’ Trump tweeted late Friday morning.
‘Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!’ Trump wrote.
He repeatedly encouraged the FBI to investigate.
‘Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn’t looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems,’ Trump wrote on Friday.
‘New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus…People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!’
Brazile says she called rival Bernie Sanders had told him she had discovered ‘cancer’ in the organization