Donna Brazile’s new book is out, and reporters at the Daily Caller, who apparently have already combed through the book, have published a series of stories summarizing the book’s most embarrassing and shocking allegations about the Clinton campaign and DNC.
Their reporting shows Brazile taking aim at other erstwhile political allies like former President Barack Obama, whom she blamed for leaving the DNC in disarray, while also revealing who she believes may have been responsible for Seth Rich’s murder.
Brazile says a chill ran down her spine when Hillary Clinton refused to concede to Donald Trump on election night of 2016 after a hushed mood had fallen over crowds of supporters at the Javits Center, who had arrived in high spirits, expecting their candidate to be swiftly anointed by the American electorate.
Unfortunately for Clinton’s most hard-core supporters, the voters had other plans. Furthermore, Brazile said Clinton’s refusal reminder her of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore’s reaction to the election results in 2000, when Gore refused to concede and demanded a recount after results showed that George W. Bush had won.
Clinton adviser Minyon Moore “told me that at 1:30 a.m. John Podesta was going to address the crowd at the Javits Center and tell them to go home,” Brazile writes. “A shiver came over me, a memory of the Gore defeat, where we had Bill Daley go out and address the crowd because Gore was still wrestling with the results, as I knew Hillary was tonight."
In another surprising - and ultimately revelatory - anecdote, Brazile recounted how former Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz did not seem particularly concerned about the cyber breach that led to Wikileaks’ publication of internal emails.
DWS even waited more than a month after first learning of it in April. Then she refused to apologize to those affected by the breach.
As for the murder of Seth Rich - the subject of perhaps the most controversial claims advanced by Brazile so far - Brazile has a couple of theories - though neither involve the Democratic Party.
I felt some responsibility for Seth Rich’s death. I didn’t bring him into the DNC, but I helped keep him there working on voting rights. With all I knew now about the Russians’ hacking, I could not help but wonder if they had played some part in his unsolved murder.
Besides that, racial tensions were high that summer and I worried that he was murdered for being white on the wrong side of town. [My friend] Elaine expressed her doubts about that, and I heard her.
The FBI said that they did not see any Russian fingerprints there.
Finally, Brazile wrote that Obama “leeched [the party] of its vitality” in the lead-up to the 2016 election campaign.
“We had three Democratic parties: The party of Barack Obama, the party of Hillary Clinton, and this weak little vestige of a party led by [Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz] that was doing a very poor job getting people who were not president elected,” Brazile.
* * *
As the excerpts that were published before the book’s official release made clear, Brazile has a particularly strong distaste for Robby Mook, Clinton’s former campaign manager.
The intensity of her dislike is laid bare throughout her book. With that in mind, here are 12 choice quotes about Mook, courtesy of the Daily Caller.
1) The Cultish Nature of the Mook Crew
“I want to talk about the arrogance and isolation of the Clinton campaign and the cult of Robby Mook, who felt fresh but turned up stale, in a campaign haunted by ghosts and lacking in enthusiasm, focus, and heart."
2) ‘What Does This Have To Do With The Russians?"
“From offstage, I could hear Robby Mook, Hillary’s campaign manager, pretaping a segment before the roundtable. Robby was talking about the Russians, and the Russians, and the Russians, and I thought, ‘What does this have to do with the Russians?‘"
3) ‘Leaving You With The Impression That He Has Listened To You'
“Try as I might to explain it to Brooklyn, all of my urgent pleas felt like they were words falling down a well. Take Hillary’s campaign manager, Robby Mook. He had this habit of nodding when you are talking, leaving you with the impression that he has listened to you, but then never seeming to follow up on what you thought you had agreed on."
4) ‘Everybody Worshiped The Data And The Analytics'
“The young men that surrounded Robby Mook–and they were all men in his inner circle–had mastered a cool and removed style of politics. They knew how to size up voters not by meeting them and finding out what they cared about, what moved their hearts and stirred their souls, but by analyzing their habits. They could take all the things you bought while shopping online in the last six years, analyze them, and say they were confident that they knew pretty much all there was to know about you. … Everybody worshiped the data and the analytics."
5) ‘I’m About To Kill Robby'
“One night when I went home I called Charlie Baker to warn him that I was struggling to keep Dolores contained. ‘Charlie, I’m about to kill Robby,’ I told him. ‘And it ain’t going to be pretty.'"
6) Does He Not Know Who I Am?
“Did he not understand that I had long-standing friendships with most of his superiors in Brooklyn, with the exception of Robby Mook?"
7) ‘Believed He Understood The Country By The Cluster Of Information About Voters He Had Gathered'
“Robby Mook believed he understood the country by the cluster of information about voters he had gathered.
I remember saying to him, after he described this very smart way he had determined which candidate people in a particular neighborhood were likely to vote for, that he was neglecting the whole story."
8) He Kind Of Unnerved Me
“He has a cool gaze of someone who has a determined sense of values and judges everyone by those principles. That inner cool makes someone like me who runs hot feel as though I’m bouncing off the walls when I talk."
9) ‘Robby Was Unwavering'
“Even when Clinton squeaked by in the Iowa caucuses and when she took a drubbing in New Hampshire, Robby was unwavering. He had a plan and he was sticking to it."
10) ‘They Saw Me Only As Someone Who Could Rouse Up The Emotions'
“Robby asked me to address the staff and volunteers, and I gave a speech off the cuff that was designed to remind them of the reasons we do this...
They saw me only as someone who could rouse up the emotions, but they were not interested in my practical advice. My feeling was that data was a tool for engagement, but there was no substitute for that human touch. This was a message that sunk to the carpet in the antiseptic rooms of Brooklyn."
11) ‘Dismissed My Report With A Condescending Tone'
“Mook’s lieutenant Marlon Marshall ‘dismissed my report with a condescending tone in his responses. He and Robby didn’t appreciate challenges to their strategy.'"
...And in the spirit of saving the best for last...
12) ‘I Could Hear Tears In His Voice'
“As the train pulled out of Philadelphia my phone rang. It was Robby Mook.
‘Madam Chair, I’m so sorry,’ he said. I could hear the tears in his voice. ‘I’m so sorry.'
‘I know, Robby,’ I said. ‘You did your best. You worked hard. We all did."
Now that the book has been released and read through by members of the media, we imagine all of the explosive revelations contained therein have, at this point, been widely discussed.
However, even if people continue to disgaree about the purity of Brazile's motives, one thing is certain: She has managed to deeply embarrass a Democratic Party establishment that has somehow retained its grip on power, even after the drubbings Democratic candidates have taken during the last two election cycles. Perhaps Brazile’s revelations - particularly the exposure of the Clinton campaign-DNC joint fundraising agreement will go a long way toward undermining the very forces that advocated for Clinton and her particular brand of antisceptic incrementalism.