By Daniella Diaz and Dan Merica
Donna Brazile, the former interim Democratic National Committee chair, wrote in her new memoir that she considered pushing for the removal of Hillary Clinton from the 2016 ticket and replacing her with then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to a report published Saturday.
The Washington Post, which obtained an advanced copy of her memoir, reported that Brazile wrote that Clinton’s campaign was “anemic” and had taken on “the odor of failure.”
The explosive revelations drag Democrats back into the ugly infighting and divisiveness that plagued the party during the 2016 primary. Brazile, despite being a longtime party official with deep ties to Clinton, uses her book to torch Clinton and her campaign by blasting the candidate as someone who couldn’t inspire enthusiasm, a key issue Clinton was forced to deal with during her general election fight against Trump.
When Clinton fainted on Sept. 11, 2016, in New York City, Brazile deliberated trying to use her position as interim DNC chair to start the process to remove the former secretary of state and her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, and replace them with Biden and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, according to the Post.
But then she decided not to.
Former DNC chair torches Clinton in new book
“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.
But Brazile would not have been able to make such a move on her own.
Democratic Party rules state that “in the event of the death, resignation or disability” of nominee for president or vice president, the DNC chair must confer with Democratic leaders in Congress and Democratic governors and report to the DNC, which is authorized to fill the vacancy.
But a DNC official told CNN that the rules were irrelevant because there was no vacancy, and Brazile would not have been able to seek Clinton’s removal from the ticket without one.
In the memoir, Brazile wrote that Clinton’s campaign was well-intentioned, but badly mismanaged, took minority voters for granted, and made careless mistakes with “stiff” and “stupid” messages, the Post reported.
She also wrote in her book that Clinton’s Brookyln campaign headquarters lacked so much passion and energy that it felt like “someone had died.”
In an open letter published on Saturday, nearly 100 former Clinton campaign staffers slammed Brazile’s portrayal of the campaign, writing that they — as a group — “are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside of our campaign and how we felt about it.”
The group of staffers also accused Brazile of buying 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,” reads the letter, which was signed by top aides like Clinton’s confidante Huma Abedin, former campaign chairman John Podesta and former campaign manager Robby Mook.
Brazile’s book, titled “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House,” will be released Tuesday.
In her book, Brazile also alleged an unethical agreement was signed between Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the DNC to keep the party financially afloat.
Brazile wrote the DNC was rigged in Clinton’s favor because her campaign was largely financing the party early on in the presidential election.
Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign also signed its own joint fundraising agreement with the DNC.
Perez vows changes
Amid the Democratic flap, which has ripped the scabs off wounds that plagued the party during the 2016 primary, DNC Chair Tom Perez, who succeeded Brazile, pledged Saturday to make the 2020 primary process more transparent.
In a Medium post, Perez vowed to make the 2020 process “unquestionably fair and transparent” by negotiating the 2020 debate schedule before all the candidates have entered the race and by making all joint fundraising agreements transparent.
The changes come after Sanders supporters complained that the 2016 primary debates, which were negotiated after the candidates were in the race, were tilted toward Clinton.
“We should never confuse unity with unanimity, and it is my unequivocal goal to regain the trust of voters and unify and strengthen our party to ensure we can elect Democrats from the school board to the oval office,” Perez wrote.
Brazile resigned from her role as a CNN contributor in October 2016 after WikiLeaks released an email in which she said she got advance questions before a CNN town hall event, which she then passed on to the Clinton campaign.
Xochitl Hinojosa, the DNC’s communications director, said in response to Brazile’s allegations that “the DNC must remain neutral in the presidential primary process, and there shouldn’t even be a perception that the DNC is interfering in that process.”
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