Donna Brazile to Critics: 'Go to Hell'

Donna Brazile has strong words for anyone who wishes she'd kept quiet instead of airing her implication that the Democratic National Committee essentially rigged the 2016 presidential primary for Hillary Clinton. "George, for those who are telling the me to shut up, they told Hillary that a couple of months ago. You know what I tell them, go to hell. I'm going to tell my story. I'm going the tell my story, George," the former DNC chair told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week Sunday morning. Meanwhile, staffers from Clinton's campaign had their own strong words for Brazile; more than 100 of them—including campaign chairman John Podesta, vice chair Huma Abedin, and manager Robby Mook—signed an open letter to Brazile that was published Saturday night, Politico reports. "We do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book," the letter says.

The letter takes particular issue with Brazile's claim that after Clinton's bout with pneumonia in September, Brazile considered replacing her and running mate Tim Kaine with a Joe Biden-Cory Booker ticket. Clinton fainted during a Sept. 11 commemoration ceremony in New York, an incident now-President Donald Trump used against her in his own campaign. "It is particularly troubling and puzzling that [Brazile] would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health," the letter reads. In response to that portion of the letter, Brazile said on ABC, "I wasn't a staff person. I did not work for the Hillary Clinton campaign. I was not on their daily strategy calls. I had nothing to do with their data analytics. I was the chair of Democratic National Committee. I was concerned about the entire party, not just the presidential, but the senatorial, congressional, and all of the other candidates." Also Sunday, Brazile's successor Tom Perez said Brazile never truly had the authority to replace Clinton and that any suggestion the candidate was "incapacitated" is "ludicrous," the AP reports. (More Donna Brazile stories.)