Former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile took the stage at “Morning Joe” on Wednesday to discuss the 2016 election as part of her very extensive book tour.
While on set, Brazile walked back some of her most contentious claims, saying the Democratic primary contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was essentially fair.
That drew a furious denunciation from show co-host Joe Scarborough, who closed out the Brazile interview with a passionate monologue arguing that the DNC had “rigged” the primaries against the Vermont senator.
“Do you remember when the debates were scheduled, up against NFL games? Do you remember every decision, large and small, it was always meant to rig the process against Bernie Sanders?” said Scarborough. “We can have all these legal arguments, all these semantic arguments, all these machinations, but you know what, the Democrats need to stoop pretending this didn’t happen with [former DNC boss] Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Every step of the way.”
Scarborough added, “If they do that, if they face that reality then they’ll face 2018 a little bit stronger, but man it was rigged in ways large and small from day one,” he added.
Since revealing details of a 2015 funding agreement between the Clinton campaign and the DNC, Brazile has been on the warpath, storming sets across cable and network news from morning to primetime.
In addition to the fundraising agreement, which she says gave the Clinton campaign too much authority over DNC decisions, Brazile has accused top leaders of the campaign of sexism, and said she considered trying to dump Clinton from the ticket after the candidate fainted at a September 11 event in New York City last fall.
On set at “Morning Joe,” Brazile continued the pile-on, likening Clinton’s team to religious fanatics.
“It was a cult,” she said. “You could not penetrate them.”