This “Brazile gave the questions to Clinton in advance” story is one of the successes of the Russian program to influence the election and disrupt democracy in the US.
– Brazile did not get questions from CNN, by all accounts, and does not seem to have obtained the actual questions asked
– The Brazile’s contributions we have seen were barely helpful at best
– Much of what we have learned about Brazile’s communications with the Clinton campaign was from emails stolen by the Russians, who had a strong interest in harming Clinton and creating enmity between Sanders supporters and Clinton supporters
– Brazile was helpful to both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, per a senior Sanders advisor: “She was fair and square with us.”
Former Bernie Sanders aide defends DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile in leaked emails kerfuffle
Tad Devine
@donnabrazile reached out to me and the Bernie camp consistently during the primaries. She was fair and square with us.
6:22 AM - 12 Oct 2016 from Rhode Island, USA
The two cases that people take as evidence that Brazile gave Clinton questions in advance are pretty underwhelming.
In one case, the debate in question was in Flint, MI, a city that was still suffering from a lead poisoning disaster. The big hint from Brazile to Clinton’s campaign was:
“One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash,” Brazile writes in the subject line of an email to Jennifer Palmieri and John Podesta. In the body of the email, she adds: “Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint.”
Wow, what a tip! Someone from Flint would ask how a candidate would help their city.
The article goes on to note (my bolding):
The description matches Flint resident Lee-Anne Walters, a debate questioner who had previously talked about her family’s rashes and showed her own to a photographer.
Her question was different, though. She asked if Clinton would “make it a requirement that all public water systems must remove all lead service lines throughout the entire United States.”
So, Brazile “leaked” a blindingly obvious question that wasn’t as it turned out, the real question. The actual question was a broader question that raised technical and cost issues that weren’t part of the Brazile’s hint. It also was the type of question easily handled by a politician who understands policy and the roles and capabilities of the various levels of government.
In the second case, Brazile gave a heads up not in the form of a leaked question, but in what appeared to be background information useful for answering a question in a particular topic area:
Here’s one that worries me about HRC.
DEATH PENALTY 19 states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. 31 states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, 156 people have been on death row and later set free. Since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the U.S. That’s 11% of Americans who were sentenced to die, but later exonerated and freed. Should Ohio and the 30 other states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?
Jennifer Palmieri replied three minutes later with:
Hi. Yes, it is one she gets asked about. Not everyone likes her answer but can share it.
Clinton, like all Presidential candidates, had a position on the death penalty. In her case, it was not popular within her own party, but she stuck with it and was accustomed to explaining her position to those who disagreed with her. During the town hall the day after the email, a questioner told Clinton that he’d been convicted of a murder, sentenced to death, and spent almost 40 years on death row before he was exonerated by the Ohio Innocence Project. He asked how she could still support the death penalty, knowing that there were innocent people who had been convicted and sentenced to death.
I think it is fair to say that the heads up from Brazile would allow Clinton to be marginally better prepared, but I think it is also fair to say that the answer Clinton gave was not shaped by what Brazile sent. She gave the same answer to the exonerated man that she had given in a Democratic debate a month earlier.
