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Donna Brazile says Fox News' Juan Williams 'gave me the fist bump' after her 'go to hell' tirade against Republican chairwoman
(L to R) Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images; YouTube screenshot

Donna Brazile says Fox News' Juan Williams 'gave me the fist bump' after her 'go to hell' tirade against Republican chairwoman

'I'm a forgiving kind of person'

Fox News contributor Donna Brazile said Juan Williams, a longtime analyst for the cable network, "gave me the fist bump" after her on-air tirade Tuesday in which she told Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to "go to hell."

What are the details?

Later in the day during a Super Tuesday panel, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Brazile about her comments to McDaniel.

"I just want to say that your tone has changed a little bit," he told Brazile. "You came in here a little bit hot and bothered ... and you were spicy today, and you had a little dust-up with Ronna McDaniel early on. Can you just explain that?"

After noting that "I'm a forgiving kind of person," Brazile broke things down.

"I want to thank Chris Wallace and Brit Hume and Juan Williams. Yes, all three men," she told Baier and the panel. "Juan gave me the fist bump, Chris gave me the talk, and Brit reminded me that, you know, sometimes ... you shouldn't call people outright. But let me just say this: As long as I'm alive, I'm gonna speak truth to power."

Brazile — who briefly served as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee — also said McDaniel needs to "respect" how the Democrats go about their business.

"And I wanna make sure that the chairwoman, I know what her job is like, but I want her to understand, to respect the process on the Democratic side," she said, adding, "Democracy is messy, but do not tell the world that the Democratic Party is trying to rig it for one candidate. We're trying to make sure everybody gets a delegate. That's why I said, 'Put down that one for [Democratic presidential candidate] Tulsi [Gabbard].'"

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What's the background?

On Fox News' "America's Newsroom," McDaniel weighed in on the Democratic presidential primary, saying, "It does depend on how big the lead that [Bernie] Sanders takes out of California is, if he picks up a huge proportion of delegates, but I don't see anybody getting out soon, and it's leading toward potentially a brokered [DNC] convention, which will be rigged against Bernie if those superdelegates have their way on that second vote."

Brazile — who infamously shared debate questions with Hillary Clinton ahead of time during the Democratic primary against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016 — reacted to McDaniel's suggestion to co-hosts Ed Henry and Sandra Smith.

"First of all, I want to talk to my Republicans," Brazile began. "First of all, stay the hell out of our race. Stay the hell out of our race. I get sick and tired, Ed and Sandra, of listening to Republicans tell me and the Democrats about our process. First of all, they don't have a process. They're canceling primaries. They have winner take all. They don't have the kind of democracy that we see on the Democratic side. And for people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans — that is stupid."

Then she lowered the boom: "So, Ronna, go to hell! This is not about — no, go to hell, I'm tired of it, Ed. ... We are not trying to prevent anyone from becoming the nominee."

How did McDaniel respond?

McDaniel responded to Brazile's "go to hell" rant on Twitter:

"It's ok, @donnabrazile," she wrote. "I'd be having a bad day too if my party was still hopelessly divided. Talk of a brokered convention and the DNC trying to stop Bernie obviously hit a little close to home."

McDaniel added more reactions later on.

"It's never fun to have your teenagers come home from school and say, 'Hey mom, you're trending on social media because some woman said you should go to heck.' But that being said, politics is a contact sport, and you know, I think Donna was out of line with her response," McDaniel said, according to the Washington Examiner. "Of course, we all recognize that the Democrats did put the thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of Donna, because of the book that she wrote, she exposed that."

McDaniel also said she "felt very in my lane saying that this is happening. I don't think it's something that we can't discuss, and I think her response was a little out of line and disproportionate to my comments earlier today," the paper noted.

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Dave Urbanski

Dave Urbanski

Sr. Editor, News

Dave Urbanski is a senior editor for Blaze News.
@DaveVUrbanski →