Posted on 11/04/2017 7:58:16 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has responded to a searing critique running the Democrat National Committee, saying she is ‘proud’ of her controversial tenure but failing to address claims she essentially handed over the party to Hillary Clinton.
The former DNC chair issued a statement after her successor, interim chair Donna Brazile, released a book excerpt where she said Wasserman Schultz was ‘not a good manager’ and allowed Clinton to virtually take over the party even before she captured the nomination.
‘It was a tremendous honor to be asked by President Obama to serve as chair of the DNC,’ the Florida Democrat said in a statement reported by MSNBC.
‘I am proud of the work our team did to support Democrats up and down the ballot in the 2016 election and to re-elect the president in 2012.’
Her statement continued to gush about party unity without directly responding to any of Brazile’s charges about her tenure.
‘With Donald Trump in the White House, Democrats must stay focused on enacting a progressive agenda to protect our citizens, our values and our democracy and remain united towards our goal of electing Democratic congressional majorities congressional majorities in 2018,’ she continued.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign seized control of the Democratic National Committee months before she won her party’s nomination, diverted resources away from struggling state parties, and allowed the national party to accumulate a mountain of debt, writes Brazile.
Brazile made the charge in a tell-all article about the dysfunction and mismanagement she uncovered at the organization she was brought in to run after hacked emails revealed efforts by party insiders to tilt the scales toward Clinton.
Brazile, who was herself thrown into controversy when it was revealed she passed on debate questions to the Clinton camp, unloads on her predecessor, Wasserman Schultz, and discloses a smoking gun document in the form of a fundraising agreement that sent resources to the Clinton camp.
Brazile says she called rival Bernie Sanders had told him she had discovered 'cancer' in the organization
Astonishingly, Elizabeth Warren – who campaigned with Clinton – said she believed Brazile.
Asked on CNN by Jake Tapper: ‘Do you agree with notion that it was rigged’ she answered simply: ‘Yes.’
President Trump has leapt on the controversy generated by the stunning article, returning to his 2016 pronouncements about ‘Crooked Hillary’ and ‘crazy Bernie.’
‘Debbie was not a good manager. She hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party—she let Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired so she didn’t have to inform the party officers how bad the situation was,’ Brazile writes in an essay in Politico magazine.
Brazile only learned of the party’s financial troubles in July after she was named interim chair after Wasserman Schultz stepped down, in a call with CFO Gary Gensler.
‘What?’ I screamed. ‘I am an officer of the party and they’ve been telling us everything is fine and they were raising money with no problems,’ she writes that she told him.
One culprit was President Obama, who failed to refill party coffers after his 2012 win.
‘Obama left the party $24 million in debt—$15 million in bank debt and more than $8 million owed to vendors after the 2012 campaign and had been paying that off very slowly. Obama’s campaign was not scheduled to pay it off until 2016,’ Brazile writes.
Clinton’s fundraising took care of the remaining debt – then put the DNC, which is supposed to be neutral until there is a nominee, on ‘an allowance.’
Gensler laid out the state of affairs in a phone call. ‘He described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearing house,’ according to Brazile.
Brazil says Wasserman Schultz ignored her board of directors, including on the bombshell development that Russia hacked the DNC’s emails.
‘She seemed to make decisions on her own and let us know at the last minute what she had decided, as she had done when she told us about the hacking only minutes before the Washington Post broke the news,’ she writes.
When the Hillary Victory Fund organized big donors fundraisers who cut checks that were to go to state parties, the funds came back to her won Brooklyn headquarters.
‘Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn,’ according to Brazile.
States ‘kept less than half of 1 percent of the $82 million they had amassed from the extravagant fund-raisers Hillary’s campaign was holding,’ according to Brazile.
The party was burning through up to $4 million each month.
‘When I got back from a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, I at last found the document that described it all: the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America,’ according to Brazile.
In exchange for its fundraising, ‘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,’ according to Brazile.
‘Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!’ President Donald Trump tweeted Friday, exploiting the infighting.
‘I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right,’ the president wrote.
I liked when dumb Debby (Trump can use that) was trying to tell the folks in LE who confiscated her computer that they broke the law.
What’s the difference between her and Susan Rice?
Debbie Denial...
She handed control of the DNC over to Shrillary & she handed over control/access to many Dem computers by hiring & retaining the Awan brothers, and then trying to cover up their involvement.
She needs to go to jail....for a very long time.
I’m quite pleased with Blabbermouth’s performance at the DNC.
During her tenure the democrats lost more elected offices than almost any other time in history, lost control of Congress, was bankrupt in terms of money and morals, and she surrendered control of the DNC to Crooked Hillary who lost to a political newcomer in an electoral college landslide.
What’s Pakistan’s highest civilian award? Assuming she hasn’t received her military commissions yet.
Wasn't just Debbie - Obama didn't know how to manage money either. Stiffing small businesses didn't bother the crooks at the DNC... most of the people who extended credit to the DNC were white middle class businessmen... and screwing them over wasn't a problem for Debbie, Obama, or Hillary...
We can thank our lucky stars Trump won... and the crooks lost.(or as Donna would call them: 'unethical'...
So proud. /sarc
How about those Pakistani IT techs she hired????
What about them??
I foresee this spat becoming even more ugly in the coming months.
Make sure one is well stocked with popcorn.
Mayonnaise Head needs to be indicted.
Debbie is a disgrace. Bernie Sanders could have won. Now she has a chance of losing the primary.
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