CNN ends relationship with DNC's Donna Brazile
CNN said Monday that it had cut its ties with Donna Brazile as reports emerged that the interim Democratic National Committee chair may have leaked two primary event questions to Hillary Clinton in March.
In its statement, CNN said that it had accepted Brazile's resignation as a contributor earlier this month, and that the network was "completely uncomfortable" with what it had learned about her interactions with the Clinton team during her tenure at CNN. Brazile's contributor agreement had already been suspended by CNN, which occurred in July when she took over as interim DNC head.
The statement from CNN:
"On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile's resignation as a CNN contributor. (Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.) CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor."
This announcement came on the same day that multiple outlets reported on a second WikiLeaks email appearing to show Brazile leaking primary event information to the Clinton campaign. The leaks purporting to show the emails of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta have not been authenticated by anyone within the Clinton team nor by NBC, and multiple parties have warned that the allegedly hacked documents could have been altered by someone seeking to damage the Democratic nominee's White House run.
For her part, Brazile tweeted a thank you to CNN, and referred media to an earlier statement denying any involvement in sharing questions with Clinton.
An earlier reported WikiLeaks document appeared to show Brazile sending Podesta one town hall question, saying in the email subject line, "From time to time I get the questions in advance."
On Monday, multiple outlets reported on another Wikileaks publication, purporting to show another March message from Brazile that offers Podesta details of a debate question.
"One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash," the email subject line says, referring to a common initialism for Clinton. And the first line of the message then reads, "Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the [people] of Flint."
Although there is no mention of a rash in the transcript from the subsequent debate, a woman identified as Lee-Anne Walters does say that her family had suffered ill health from the water in Flint, Michigan. That said, multiple questions during the Flint debate referenced the city's water problems, as it was one of the primary concerns in the area at that time.
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