fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Yeah, Crooked Hillary

Ex-DNC boss Donna Brazile tells how Clinton campaign robbed Bernie Sanders
shutterstock_328825136

This is a pretty incredible piece by ex-DNC head Donna Brazile, describing how Hillary Clinton’s campaign took over the Democratic Party apparatus and screwed over Bernie Sanders by rigging its finances. Excerpts:

I wanted to believe Hillary, who made campaign finance reform part of her platform, but I had made this pledge to Bernie and did not want to disappoint him. I kept asking the party lawyers and the DNC staff to show me the agreements that the party had made for sharing the money they raised, but there was a lot of shuffling of feet and looking the other way.

When I got back from a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard I at last found the document that described it all: the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.

The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.

I had been wondering why it was that I couldn’t write a press release without passing it by Brooklyn [HRC’s campaign HQ — RD]. Well, here was the answer.

More:

I told Bernie I had found Hillary’s Joint Fundraising Agreement. I explained that the cancer was that she had exerted this control of the party long before she became its nominee. Had I known this, I never would have accepted the interim chair position, but here we were with only weeks before the election.

Bernie took this stoically. He did not yell or express outrage. Instead he asked me what I thought Hillary’s chances were. The polls were unanimous in her winning but what, he wanted to know, was my own assessment?

I had to be frank with him. I did not trust the polls, I said. I told him I had visited states around the country and I found a lack of enthusiasm for her everywhere. I was concerned about the Obama coalition and about millennials.

Aaaaaand … that worked out well for the Democrats.

Read the whole thing. If I were a Democrat, I would be apoplectic at the Clintons and what they represent. I don’t know that Bernie is young enough to win the nomination in 2020, and if not, I guarantee you a Bernie-style “drain the swamp” Democrat is going to.

Advertisement