Former DNC leader Donna Brazile says she considered replacing 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with then-Vice President Joe Biden after Clinton fainted in the closing weeks of the White House race, according to full review of Brazile’s upcoming book published Saturday.
Clinton fainted while attending an outdoor ceremony in New York City marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But Brazile, then the interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman, had already known that Clinton has pneumonia, she writes in her upcoming book, according to The Washington Post, which received an advance copy.
The Post’s review of the book -- “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House” -- says Brazile writes in “wrenching detail” about the former first lady’s bout with pneumonia, including her seeing Clinton at a Manhattan gala two days before she collapsed.
Brazile said Clinton was already “wobbly on her feet” and had a “rattled cough,” according to the review.
Clinton's former campaign team said in an open letter posted Saturday on the blogging platform Medium that they were dismayed by Brazile's revelations.
"We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees," reads the opening of the letter."It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health."
The Post review was published two days after Brazile published excerpts of the book in Politico that including bombshell revelations about her taking over the DNC in the summer of 2016 with roughly $20 million in debt.
Brazile also made the startling claim Thursday that a joint fundraising agreement between the DNC and the Clinton campaign, which included Clinton’s input on hirings and spending, effectively rigged the primary contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Brazile also writes, according to the Post review, that she wanted to replace Clinton and Vice Presidential Nominee Sen. Tim Kaine with a ticket of Biden and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker as his running mate. She purportedly thought they had the best potential to win over working-class voters and defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump, according to the book review.
But “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 writes.
The Post review also states that Brazile, when frustrated with Clinton aides, would remind them that the DNC charter gave her the authority to initiate the replacement of the party's presidential nominee.
She said that if a nominee became disabled, the party chairman would oversee the replacement process, though it would ultimately require a meeting of the entire DNC.
The review also details Brazile's reported wide-ranging takedown of the Clinton campaign over such matters as perceived “inevitability” and a focus on analytics over truly understanding voters.
Brazile also reportedly says she cannot remember sending an email, as a paid CNN contributor, to the Clinton campaign sharing potential topics and questions in advance of a town hall event the cable news network was hosting, nor does she have a record of sending it. However, she nevertheless apologized. The email was released by WikiLeaks.