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A DNC Reset – Goodbye Hillary, Hello Bernie

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The DNC has apparently decided it’s time to part ways with Hillary and Bill Clinton.

The break-up is happening in the most public of displays – under full sunlight – for all to see.

An excerpt of Donna Brazile’s new book was released today.

The shock-waves are still reverberating.

Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC, appeared today in Politico.

Bus, meet Hillary…

If you haven’t yet read the article, I encourage you to do so now.

Ironically, most of the information revealed had already been publicly available – if you were paying close attention…

These articles from 2015-16 all highlight the same disclosures:

DNC Announces Fundraising Agreement with Clinton Campaign

DNC Sought to Hide Details of Clinton Funding Deal

Clinton Fundraising Leaves Little for State Parties

Perkins Coie Lawyer’s Advice Helped Spark Democratic Divisions – this article discusses Marc Elias – a lawyer who represented both the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Elias directly retained Fusion GPS in the commissioning of the Trump Dossier.

How Clinton Lost Michigan – and Blew the Election

The difference was in who was making the claims. And all that it signified – for Clinton and the DNC.

And Obama.

Donna Brazile was interim Chairwoman of the DNC – taking over after Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was ousted when emails showed the DNC was favoring Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

Brazile, who has long-standing ties to the Clintons, famously gave Debate Questions to Hillary Clinton when Brazile worked at CNN.

She also details how the entire DNC structure became a cesspool of corruption under the Clintons.

From the article:

My predecessor, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had not been the most active chair in fundraising at a time when President Barack Obama’s neglect had left the party in significant debt. As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations.

I called Gary Gensler, the chief financial officer of Hillary’s campaign. He wasted no words. He told me the Democratic Party was broke and $2 million in debt.

Obama left the party $24 million in debt—$15 million in bank debt and more than $8 million owed to vendors after the 2012 campaign and had been paying that off very slowly. Obama’s campaign was not scheduled to pay it off until 2016.

Hillary for America (the campaign) and the Hillary Victory Fund (its joint fundraising vehicle with the DNC) had taken care of 80 percent of the remaining debt in 2016, about $10 million, and had placed the party on an allowance.

He described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearing house.

Under FEC law, an individual can contribute a maximum of $2,700 directly to a presidential campaign. But the limits are much higher for contributions to state parties and a party’s national committee.

Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the thirty-two states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC.

The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn [Clinton Headquarters].

“That victory fund was supposed to be for whoever was the nominee, and the state party races. You’re telling me that Hillary has been controlling it since before she got the nomination?” Gary said the campaign had to do it or the party would collapse. “That was the deal that Robby struck with Debbie,” he explained, referring to campaign manager Robby Mook.

The party chair usually shrinks the staff between presidential election campaigns, but Debbie had chosen not to do that. She had stuck lots of consultants on the DNC payroll, and Obama’s consultants were being financed by the DNC, too.

It would be weeks before I would fully understand the financial shenanigans that were keeping the party on life support.

The states kept less than half of 1 percent of the $82 million they had amassed from the extravagant fund-raisers Hillary’s campaign was holding.

The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.

Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.

When you have an open contest without an incumbent and competitive primaries, the party comes under the candidate’s control only after the nominee is certain. This victory fund agreement, however, had been signed in August 2015, just four months after Hillary announced her candidacy and nearly a year before she officially had the nomination.

The funding arrangement with HFA and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical. If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead.

I told Bernie I had found Hillary’s Joint Fundraising Agreement. I explained that the cancer was that she had exerted this control of the party long before she became its nominee.

Note what really took place.

Obama bled the Democratic Party financially dry during his 2012 Presidential Campaign. Clinton agreed to aid the DNC by assuming $10 million of debt the DNC had incurred in funding Obama’s Presidential Campaign. In return, Clinton gained complete control over the DNC and its finances. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz facilitated the transfer of power to Clinton. Clinton was then able to use the DNC as a fund-raising clearing house. Exclusively for her Presidential Campaign.

To sum up:

Or as Ben Shapiro notes:

While Brazile tries to anoint herself as the Saintly Righter of DNC Wrongs, her ethical challenges remain firmly in place.

But the timing – and motive – behind her revelations is telling.

Democrats are desperate to re-brand their party.

Reset their party.

The DNC is looking to Bernie and his supporters in order to survive. The real question becomes – will it work.

They are certainly pulling out all the stops. From today:

I think it’s too little too late.

Moving away from Clinton Corruption is the right move for the DNC. Moving further left to embrace Sanders Socialism is not.

After his inauguration, President Trump offered Hillary, Obama and the DNC an olive branch by publicly dismissing the notion of pursuing investigations into Team Clinton.

Obama, Clinton and the DNC, in their hubris and anger, turned down the offer – choosing instead to redouble their Russian-Collusion Smear Campaign.

They chose poorly.

Democrats should steel themselves for a bumpy ride.

The days and weeks ahead will be replete with revelations.

The Clintons are done.

But Sanders is not the answer.

 

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