Hillary Clinton on Wednesday dismissed claims made by former Democratic National Committee interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile about the party’s presidential primary, saying the way she described the contest “just wasn’t the case.”
“I didn’t know what she was referring to because, as has now come out, that just wasn’t the case,” Clinton said during an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
“But the current DNC leadership really invested heavily in Virginia and New Jersey and other places.”
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Clinton’s comments come after Brazile stirred controversy last week when an excerpt from her new book appeared to suggest that the Democratic primary was rigged in Clinton’s favor.
Brazile cited a fundraising agreement between the Clinton campaign, Clinton’s joint fundraising committee and the DNC that said the campaign would “control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.” The agreement, according to Brazile, was signed in August of 2015, nearly a year before Clinton secured the nomination.
“The funding arrangement with [Hillary for America] and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile wrote in the excerpt published in Politico.
“If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.”
Former Clinton staff members pushed back on Brazile’s revelations last week, saying they “do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book.”
But the former interim DNC chairwoman appeared to backtrack on her claims Sunday, telling ABC’s “This Week” that she does not believe the party’s primary was rigged.
“I found no evidence, none, whatsoever,” Brazile told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” when asked about accusations that the primary process was rigged in Clinton’s favor.
“The only thing I found, which I said, I found the cancer, but I’m not killing the patient, was this memorandum that prevented the DNC from running its own operation.”