Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, is growing increasingly sharp with Donna Brazile following her attempts this week to downplay the moment she said McDaniel should “go to hell” for suggesting a brokered Democratic convention is going to be “rigged” against Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“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 I think she was out of line with her response,” McDaniel said following Brazile’s weak effort to run damage control for the outburst.
She adds, “Of course, we all recognize that the Democrats did put their thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of Donna, because of the book that she wrote, she exposed that. I felt very in my lane saying that this is happening. I don’t think it’s something we can’t discuss, and I think her response was a little out of line and disproportionate to my comments earlier today.”
This all begins with the moment Brazile pretended this week to be really upset after she was asked to respond to McDaniel’s recent allegation that a brokered Democratic convention will almost certainly be “rigged” against the 2020 Democratic primary front-runner, especially if the superdelegates who oppose him “have their way.”
“First of all,” said the former interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, “I want to talk to my Republicans. First of all: Stay the hell out of our race! Stay the hell out of our race! I get sick and tired … of listening to Republicans tell me and the Democrats about our process.”
She added, “And for people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans,” Brazile added. “That is stupid. So, Ronna, go to hell! Go to hell!”
We have to pause here to note that Brazile wrote an entire book accusing the Democratic National Committee of rigging the 2016 primary against Sanders. That makes the whole thing look pretty silly.
McDaniel responded initially to the Democratic operative’s performance this week with a somewhat jokey tweet, writing, “It’s ok … 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.”
Later, on Fox and Friends, Brazile attempted to do some damage control, saying completely unprompted, “Now, let me just say this because I don’t want to be a bad girl today. I was a bad girl yesterday because you know I’m a hot sister.”
Later, during a separate appearance on Fox News, Brazile tried again to downplay her outburst aimed at McDaniel.
“I must tell you the secret. I’m a forgiving kind of person,” Brazile said. “I want to thank Chris Wallace and Brit Hume and Juan Williams. Yes, all three men. Juan gave me the fist bump. Chris gave me the talk. And Brit reminded me that, you know, sometimes you don’t, you shouldn’t call people outright.”
She added, “But let me just say this, as long as I’m alive, I’m going to speak truth to power….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.”
It was these remarks that prompted McDaniel to say finally that Brazile was “out of line” and “disproportionate” in her response.
Honestly, though, the thing I cannot get over is the fact that Brazile is pretending to be upset about people warning that the Democratic establishment may try again to do to Sanders what Brazile claimed it did to him in 2016. She wrote an entire book about it!
