Former DNC chair strains unity
Brazile considered effort to replace Clinton with Biden
Democrats are having trouble surmounting differences over the bitter 2016 election amid revelations of a contemplated effort to replace Hillary Clinton as the presidential nominee, deepening party strife just before today’s closely watched Virginia governor’s race.
The fate of that bellwether election will likely make a weighty statement about Democratic prospects in 2018 and beyond.
“Everywhere I go right now, we’re focused on elections ... and what the people are telling me is they want to know how they’re going to get their good jobs back, how are they going to get health care,” said Tom Perez, the party’s chairman, on Sunday.
Perez then launched into an attack on the 2016 claims of his predecessor, interim DNC leader Donna Brazile, as “ludicrous” and “without merit.”
The duelling across the Sunday news show platforms was triggered by the disclosure that Brazile, the DNC chair during the final months of the campaign, considered an effort to replace Clinton with then-Vice-President Joe Biden because of health concerns.
Brazile, who claimed “tremendous pressure” to devise a backup ticket after Clinton fainted at an event, pushed back at critics: “Go to hell. I’m going to tell my story.”
The dispute was spurred by Brazile’s revelations in a memoir being released today and reported on by The Washington Post. It reflected simmering tensions between establishment and insurgent wings that will set the party’s future course on issues from its platform to the primary schedule and use of superdelegates — party leaders and elected officials who
get a say in the nomination — in the 2020 presidential race.
“One of the things, as we go forward, is to give more power to the grass roots in all this,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, urging Democrats not to “relitigate elections.”
It comes in the final hours before Virginia’s governor race, where Republicans have not won a significant statewide election since 2009. The Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, is casting the race to voters as a way to repudiate the policies of President Donald Trump against Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman.
But Northam has received lukewarm support within his own party from the progressive group Democracy for America.
A win for Democrats could help defuse Brazile’s book and give the party important momentum. A loss would be a big blow to other Democrats plotting a
similar anti-Trump strategy for the 2018 midterm congressional races and likely spur louder calls for radical changes in the DNC heading into 2020.
“We have to make sure that everybody feels at the end of the process that everyone got a fair shake,” Perez said.
Also today there is a New Jersey governor’s race, where Democrat Phil Murphy holds a solid lead over Republican Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno to succeed departing Gov. Chris Christie.
In her book, Brazile writes that she considered initiating Clinton’s removal after the candidate collapsed while leaving a 9-11 memorial service in New York City, and Brazile contemplated a dozen combinations to replace Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. Brazile says she settled on Biden and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker as having the best chance of defeating Republican Trump.