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.”
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.
But then she decided not to.
“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.”
Clinton’s spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment Saturday.
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 agreementwas 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.
Brazile resignedfrom 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.”
