The presidential campaign of 2016 was rocked when Wikileaks revealed an email appearing to show Donna Brazile passing along a question from a CNN debate to Hillary Clinton. After months of denials, the former interim DNC chair finally admitted Friday that she was guilty of the accusation.
In an essay written for Time, Brazile recounts how the DNC was hacked during her tenure as interim chair, and eventually admits guilt.
"When I was asked last July to step in temporarily as D.N.C. Chair," she explained, "I knew things were amiss. The D.N.C. had been hacked, and thousands of staff emails and documents were plastered on various websites. Staff were harassed, morale suffered, and we lost weeks of planning. Donors were harassed, and fundraising fell off."
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.
The debate on CNN was held between Hillary Clinton and her upstart competitor Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic primary. Bernie lost, and when the accusations of debate cheating were discovered, his supporters vociferously attacked Clinton, while fueling Trump's constant claims, now forgotten, that the election was "rigged."
Brazile admitted, "sending those emails was a mistake I will forever regret."
"By stealing all the DNC’s emails and then selectively releasing those few," she explained, "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."
Brazile is admitting her mendacious actions in order to demand that more investigation be done into alleged Russian meddling into the election.
"Let me be clear," she concluded. "This is not just the price of politics. This is not normal. We cannot let this stand. Our democratic process itself was attacked and harmed, and all Americans should be concerned."
BREAKING: Donna Brazile finally admits she shared debate questions with Clinton campaign.
— Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) March 17, 2017
Guess, this won't be on CNN tonight. pic.twitter.com/8GK36Es6S7
Brazile lost her position at CNN as a contributor, and was harangued by the accusations throughout the campaign until the election, where Clinton lost the electoral count but garnered more votes than Trump in the popular vote.
The DNC voted to replace her with former Obama official Tom Perez in February.
