*CNN has just made its temporary suspension of Donna Brazile permanent in light of new emails suggesting she ferreted debate questions to the Clinton campaign.
Brazile actually resigned from the network on Oct. 14, three months after her deal was first suspended when she took over for ousted Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz during the Democratic National Convention.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, CNN made the separation perfectly clear Monday after a second round of hacked emails released from Wikileaks doubled down on a previous leaked email that suggested she provided questions in advance to Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the network’s Democratic primary debates.
Wikileaks first published an email earlier this month that appeared to show Brazile sharing a question about the death penalty for the network’s March 12 debate. She seemed to identify Roland Martin, a former CNN contributor and current TV One anchor who was among the debate moderators, as the source of the question. At that time, Brazile, CNN and Martin all denied that there was any question sharing going on.
“To be perfectly clear we have never, ever given a town hall question to anyone beforehand,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement released Oct. 11. Martin told Politico that he did not share his questions: “My executive producer wasn’t even aware of what I was going to ask.”
Today, the release of more emails appeared to showed that Brazile also shared a question that could’ve be posed to Clinton during the network’s town hall debate in Flint, Michigan on March 6. The email released Monday appears to have been sent by Brazile to Clinton chairman John Podesta and communications chief Jennifer Palmieri. The subject line of the email read: “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash.”
Flint had been rocked by a water contamination scandal. “Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” wrote Brazile in the email.
“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,” said a network spokesperson in a statement Monday.
Also on Monday, Brazile thanked her former CNN colleagues: “Honored to be a Democratic Strategist and commentator on the network. Godspeed to all my former colleagues.”
Below, Brazile is asked about the allegations by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly:
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
