When Hillary Clinton took the stage as the party’s nominee at the Democratic National Convention, it was already a foregone conclusion. She had long tied up the nomination process by securing the number of delegates needed for a victory. But in an explosive new article, former interim Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile says that Hillary Clinton rigged the race in her favor long before a single vote was counted, and she has proof.
Brazile was selected to run the Democratic Party after Debbie Wasserman Shultz was ousted as chairperson when leaked emails revealed that Shultz was essentially a Hillary operative running the party. Brazile says that she promised Clinton’s opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, that if she ever discovered that the presidential nomination process was unfair or unethical, she’d let him know.
Well, now she’s letting Sanders know.
Brazile penned an in-depth article for Politico today that exposed how Hillary Clinton finagled a secret agreement to put her in control of the DNC’s finances, strategy and all the money raised by the party in exchange for resolving its debt.
The story is complex and multilayered. For the sake of simplification, allow me to break down how it worked:
The Democratic National Committee is the national party. Until a presidential candidate is nominated, it is supposed to work as an unbiased umbrella organization for all of the presidential candidates. Contributions are limited to $33,400.
Hillary for America was the Clinton campaign. Contributions to the campaign are capped at $2,700, but Clinton can do whatever she wants with the money.
The Hillary Victory Fund was the joint fundraising arm of the DNC and the Clinton campaign. It raises money for each individual state campaign and shares it with the DNC. Because of federal election laws, a person can contribute up to $10,000 to each of these state campaigns.
Since HFA was in 32 states, essentially, Clinton’s big-money donors could write a check for $353,400 ($10,000 for each state, plus $33,400 to the DNC), but the money was theoretically supposed to stay in each state, and the rest with the DNC.
Brazile explains that when she took over, she was surprised to find out that the DNC was millions of dollars in financial debt (partly because Shultz managed the committee so poorly). So the Democratic Party went to Clinton, who was raking in huge amounts of money through fundraising with big-money donors, and asked for a loan.
Clinton agreed, but only on one condition. Brazile discovered that Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Victory Fund signed an agreement that gave the DNC $2 million in exchange for control of the party’s finances, strategy and fundraising.
Remember all those dollar amounts we talked about earlier? Here’s why you had to read that bullshit:
Hillary Clinton’s big-money donors donated $82 million. Well, Clinton funneled all of that money to the DNC because she controlled it! In fact, less than half of 1 percent went to the state campaigns. While this is not technically illegal, Politico described it as “essentially money-laundering” for the Clinton campaign.
Why is this important? Because the Clinton campaign controlled the strategy, which means:
- In states where Sanders was favored in the primary, Clinton could control the purse strings of the DNC’s “get out the vote effort.”
- Even if Sanders raised the maximum amount possible, he couldn’t compete with Clinton’s fundraising because she also had the secret, supposedly unbiased DNC bank account in her back pocket.
Election primaries are not controlled by the government. They are determined by the parties, which means that Clinton had control over every contest she competed with Sanders. It’s like playing a basketball game with your mom and dad as the referees.
And your cousin is the scorekeeper.
And your brother is the other team’s coach.
Donna Brazile said that she cried, and I got a little misty-eyed reading this, too. Hillary Clinton is running around the country hawking books, talking about how Donald Trump rigged the election, while she was doing the same thing. I told you that wrinkled old fainting lady was evil. It is undeniable. She is a crook and a liar.
None of this means that Trump isn’t a terrible president, but always remember: The lesser of two evils is still evil.
But your vote still counts ...
I think.
Man, I don’t even know anymore.
Read more at Politico.