Almost a year after a mourning-purple-clad Hillary Clinton made her somber concession speech, she continues to be the subject of daily news stories. Trump-loving Americans continue to downplay the importance of the Mueller investigation and resulting indictments, while going back to the ol’ “…but Hillary…” refrain on a near-constant basis. Most of the time, the Hillary obsession is a ridiculous mix of unfair and irrelevant. But this time, Hillary news is in equal parts really bad and really important. This time, the news is about Hillary Clinton’s collusion to rig the election – not with a foreign power known to have anti-American interests, but with our own Democratic party.
Today, in a shocking piece titled “Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC,” former DNC interim chairperson Donna Brazile published an excerpt of her new book. In it, she threw Hillary under the biggest bus of the year.
First, Brazile warms up by taking a few swings at Debbie Wasserman Schultz:
Debbie was not a good manager. She hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party—she let Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired so she didn’t have to inform the party officers how bad the situation was. How much control Brooklyn had and for how long was still something I had been trying to uncover for the last few weeks.
Next, Brazile describes her own investigation, originating from follow up over the Russian email hacking; she describes a disturbing phone call with Gary Gensler, the chief financial officer of Hillary’s campaign, in which Gensler confirmed some of Brazile’s suspicions. The DNC, an organization described as being on financial “life support” was “fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign,” which infused the DNC with much-needed funds each month. Brazile went on to describe a financially dysfunctional organization, bloated under Wasserman-Schultz’s irresponsible leadership, and exploited by the Clinton campaign.
Finally, Brazile revealed her smoking gun: a contract called the “Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.” This agreement was signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager; Attorney Marc Elias (of dossier fame) was cc’d on there too.
The agreement memorialized a setup whereby Hillary would raise money for and invest in the DNC, and in exchange, she’d control the party in all aspects from finances to strategy to staffing. Hillary would get to choose the party communications director, as well as get final say on all other staff. She’d get to oversee decisions on budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings. In other words, Bernie or no Bernie. Hillary was at the helm.
The agreement, according to Brazile, wasn’t necessarily illegal – but “sure looked unethical.” Finally, Brazile’s excerpt ends with her account of a tearful phone call to Bernie Sanders shortly before the election:
“Hello, senator. I’ve completed my review of the DNC and I did find the cancer,” Brazile said. “But I will not kill the patient.”
Let’s not forget—there’s a class action lawsuit proceeding against the DNC for defrauding campaign contributors who’d sent funds to support Bernie Sanders and expected him to get a fair chance at the nomination. At the heart of that lawsuit is a brazen contention by the DNC that seems even worse in light of Brazile’s statements: any assumption that the presidential nominating process was fair couldn’t be the basis for a lawsuit, because any indications of fairness are nothing more than “purported political promises.” In other words, the DNC isn’t interested in even pretending it gave Bernie a chance.
Perhaps the worst thing about Brazile’s revelation is its origin. This story isn’t coming from Fox or Drudge, but from someone deeply committed to furthering the interests of the Democratic party. A not-so-secret contract between Hillary and the DNC may not make Russiagate look any better, but it sure makes our democracy look a lot worse.
[Image via Shutterstock]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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