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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe DNC/HFA Agreement & Donna Brazile's Growing Pile of Nonsense -Josh Marshall/TPM
By JOSH MARSHALL Published NOVEMBER 4, 2017 4:26 PM
Last night NBC published the DNC/Clinton campaign memo that Donna Brazile was apparently referring to. Its not actually the Joint Fundraising Agreement. Its a side agreement. But thats just a semantic distinction. Heres my take on where this new revelation leaves the story.
Reviewing the document, I think its a fair read the the Clinton campaign wanted control over things during the general election. Thats fair and normal. But they also wanted control over the building of the what they expected to inherit for the general election once Clinton became the nominee. Thats not unreasonable in itself. But that also meant having a veto power over things that were happening during the primaries, particularly hiring of key staff. So while the document says explicitly that these agreements apply exclusively to the general election, the Clinton campaign was also getting veto rights over organizational decisions during the primaries, even if they werent about the primaries.
There are also lines in the agreement about the campaigns rights to review emails that went out about any primary candidate. That might create more control. But its not clear to me what that amounted to in practice. Those parts arent entirely clear to me.
The upshot is that this is significantly different from what Donna Brazile claimed in the book excerpt published in Politico. But it also includes levels of control pre-general election that would have have as a surprise to many. Its a surprise to me. As I wrote in yesterdays post, theres nothing here that remotely qualifies as rigging the election. That is inflammatory talk and frankly a smear. Just why Brazile went that route I do not know and dont care to speculate. But she did everyone involved a grave disservice by being willfully misleading, deeply self-serving and inflaming already existing divisions in the party that will be hard to repair as it is.
Indeed, the rigging language doesnt even make sense if you have any real understanding of what the DNC actually does. The primary schedules are set up way in advance of the actual campaign, long before anyone at the DNC had any idea Sanders would mount such a strong campaign. The DNC doesnt administer the primaries; the states do. Basically the DNC couldnt rig process even if it wanted to.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-dnchfa-agreement-donna-braziles-growing-pile-of-nonsense
FloridaBlues
(4,008 posts)riversedge
(70,286 posts)Josh has been tweeting up a storm on Donna and her book:
Josh Marshall?Verified account @joshtpm
This is such grandiloquent nonsense. The idea that Brazile had it in her power to do this but had mercy on Clintons followers. My god.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet