The Washington Post reported new details from Donna Brazile’s forthcoming book, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House, that include the fact that the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee considered replacing Hillary Clinton as the Democratic party’s 2016 presidential candidate.
Following Clinton’s bizarre collapse during the 2016 9/11 memorial ceremony, Brazile seriously considered choosing either Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Cory Booker from New Jersey as the party’s presidential nominee.
Brazile does not hold back her criticism of the campaign, palpably describing it as having “an odor of failure.” But it was not Clinton’s ailing health issues that caused her the most concern, rather it was the “anemic” campaign and those leading it.
"Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, “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.”
Brazile paints a scathing portrait of Clinton as a well-intentioned, historic candidate whose campaign was badly mismanaged, took minority constituencies for granted and made blunders with “stiff” and “stupid” messages. The campaign was so lacking in passion for the candidate, she writes, that its New York headquarters felt like a sterile hospital ward where “someone had died.”
Brazile also details butting heads with Clinton campaign staffers who attempted to boss her around.
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“Brazile also recounts fiery disagreements with Clinton’s staffers — including a conference call in which she told three senior campaign officials, Charlie Baker, Marlon Marshall and Dennis Cheng, that she was being treated like a slave.
“I’m not Patsey the slave,” Brazile recalls telling them, a reference to the character played by Lupita Nyong’o in the film, “12 Years a Slave.” “Y’all keep whipping me and whipping me and you never give me any money or any way to do my damn job. I am not going to be your whipping girl!”
Brazile describes a creepy omnipresent-like feeling from Clinton operatives throughout the campaign.
"Brazile also was paid a surprise visit in her DNC office by Baker, who, she writes, was dispatched by the Clinton campaign “to make sure that Donna didn’t do anything crazy.”
“Again and again I thought about Joe Biden,” Brazile writes. But, she adds, “No matter my doubts and my fears about the election and Hillary as a candidate, I could not make good on that threat to replace her.”
Perhaps most surprisingly, Brazile even criticizes former President Obama’s ego.
“Brazile writes that she inherited a national party in disarray, in part because President Obama, Clinton and Wasserman Schultz were “three titanic egos” who had “stripped the party to a shell for their own purposes.”
Brazile writes that she inherited Wasserman Schultz’s office — with “tropical pink” walls that she found hard on the eyes — and “ridiculous” perks, such as a Chevrolet Tahoe with driver and a personal entourage that included an assistant known as a body woman.
The outgoing president no longer needed to assess his approval ratings or his policy decisions, at least not when the Democratic Party was fighting for its survival against a hostile foreign power,” she writes”
So far her memoir is shaping up to be a brutal blow against her own party, portraying an organization filled with internal strife and petty disagreements that caused massive damaging effects.
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