In an essay for Politico on Thursday, former interim Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile dropped a bombshell on the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. In the piece, which was an excerpt from her upcoming book, Brazile exposed how “the DNC was rigging the system to throw the primary to Hillary” through a shady and ethically questionable financial arrangement. Even though it seemed like a plot in House of Cards, the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) had a complete blackout of any mention of the news during their evening broadcasts.
The reason the networks wanted to keep Brazile’s findings secret was simple: They didn’t want to ruin their narrative that Clinton was a pure angel who was a victim of Donald Trump and Russian collusion. But in recent weeks, it had come out that Clinton had the DNC in her pocket and they both were funneling money to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele so they could work with Russian agents to get dirt on Donald Trump.
For the Spanish-language networks, NBC-owned Telemundo followed the example and omitted Brazile from their broadcast. In stark contrast, Univision was the only one to mention the Brazile revelation and dedicated two minutes and 30 seconds to it.
“The former head of the Democratic National Committee skewers Hillary Clinton in a new book about the 2016 election,” announced Fox News Anchor Bret Baier during Special Report. “As Chief Washington Correspondent reports James Rosen reports, Donna Brazile now charges the system was rigged against insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders.”
Reading from Brazile’s account of her internal investigation, Rosen quoted the section on “the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America”:
“The agreement,” Brazile writes, “signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook of the Clinton campaign with a copy to the general counsel 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.
The agreement was essentially for Clinton to buy out the DNC and take it over as an arm of her campaign. The ink was dry a mere four months after she announced her presidency and not even a year before she finally put Sanders away. It’s worth noting that even with the DNC rigged in her favor, Clinton had an extraordinarily hard time locking up the nomination for herself.
Rosen reached out to the Clinton campaign for comment, but as would be expected they declined to say anything. But when they reached out to the DNC chair at the time, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told them she was proud of her work there.
And while Brazile claimed to have found no other instance of the Party being tilted in Clinton’s favor, she did omit how she pasted Hillary Clinton questions for the CNN debate. “But in an essay for Time magazine last May, Brazile belatedly acknowledged having done so and called it a mistake she will regret forever,” Rosen recalled.
What we’ve learned over the last couple weeks was that Clinton was doing everything to ensure her entitled victory, even the unethical and dirty. And the networks showed the lengths they would go through to keep her as clean as possible.
Transcript below:
Fox News Channel
Special Report
November 2, 2017
6:19:51 PM EasternBRET BAIER: The former head of the Democratic National Committee skewers Hillary Clinton in a new book about the 2016 election. As Chief Washington Correspondent reports James Rosen reports, Donna Brazile now charges the system was rigged against insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders.
[Cuts to video]
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER 1: We wanted to try to get reaction on the Donna Brazile revelations this morning Mr. Sanders.
JAMES ROSEN: Bernie Sanders had no comment on Donna Brazile, former interim Democratic National Committee chair, whose forthcoming memoir alleges in an excerpt in Politico that under her predecessor, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, quote: “The DNC was rigging the system to throw the primary to Hillary.”
HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you for the great convention we've had.
ROSEN: Brazile reports that the Clinton campaign raised $10 million to retire 80 percent of the Party’s bank debt, but exacted a steep price:
“The agreement,” Brazile writes, “signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook of the Clinton campaign with a copy to the general counsel 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. This victory fund agreement had been signed in August of 2015, just four months after Hillary announced her candidacy and nearly a year before she officially had the nomination.”
JOE TRIPPI: There are lots of things shocking about it. One, the financial condition of the DNC. Two, the way the DNC then had to rely on the Clinton campaign for the money and the resources to continue even operating.
ROSEN: In a statement, Wasserman Schultz told Fox News she's proud of her work at DNC and urged Democrats to remain focused on a Progressive agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER 2: Madam Secretary, any response to what Donna Brazile is saying?
ROSEN: The Clinton campaign did not respond to our query, nor would the Federal Elections Commission disclose whether it's investigating Brazile's allegations. Brazile said she search for other evidence of a rigged primary and found none.
(…)
Yet, the excerpt neglects to mention that Brazile used her dual role as a CNN commentator to steer CNN debate questions to Clinton in advance. For months Brazile denied having done so.
MEGYN KELLY: Where did you get it?
DONNA BRAZILE: You know, as a Christian woman, I understand persecution but I will not sit here and be persecuted because your information is totally false.
[Cuts back to live]
ROSEN: But in an essay for Time magazine last May, Brazile belatedly acknowledged having done so and called it a mistake she will regret forever. The DNC’s new leadership told reporters they restructured the Party’s fund-raising and are now committed to electing Democrats every year in every zip code.
