Donna Brazile Admits She Leaked CNN Town Hall Topics to Clinton Campaign

By Don Irvine —— Bio and Archives March 20, 2017

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Former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman admitted in a Time.com column on Friday that she did share CNN town hall topics with the Clinton campaign while employed by the network, and says that doing so was a mistake that she will never forget.

Brazile wrote about the WikiLeaks emails that led to her resignation from CNN:

“Then in October, a subsequent release of emails revealed that among the many things I did in my role as a Democratic operative and D.N.C. Vice Chair prior to assuming the interim D.N.C. Chair position was to share potential town hall topics with the Clinton campaign. I had been working behind the scenes to add more town hall events and debates to the primary calendar, and I helped ensure those events included diverse moderators and addressed topics vital to minority communities. My job was to make all our Democratic candidates look good, and I worked closely with both campaigns to make that happen. But sending those emails was a mistake I will forever regret.”

In November, Brazile denied that she was given any questions by CNN and lamented how the network treated her after the emails came to light:

“CNN never gave me a question. I wish CNN had given me some other things, like the ability to defend myself rather than ripping me a new one.”

Brazile also complained that the selective release of the emails made it look like she was “in the tank” for Clinton, which she denied:

“By stealing all the DNC’s emails and then selectively releasing those few, the Russians made it look like I was in the tank for Secretary Clinton. Despite the strong, public support I received from top Sanders campaign aides in the wake of those leaks, the media narrative played out just as the Russians had hoped, leaving Sanders supporters understandably angry, and sowing division in our ranks. In reality, not only was I not playing favorites, the more competitive and heated the primary got, the harder D.N.C. staff worked to be scrupulously fair and beyond reproach. In all the months the Russians monitored the D.N.C.’s email, they found just a handful of inappropriate emails, with no sign of anyone taking action to disadvantage the Sanders campaign.”

Except for leaking those questions and topics to Hillary Clinton. Any divisions within the Democratic Party aren’t the fault of the Russians or WikiLeaks. Instead they belong to the party itself for creating a system that was designed to favor an establishment candidate like Clinton, and prevent unwanted outsiders like Sanders from having a real shot at the nomination.