Longtime Democratic activist Donna Brazile told the head of the Republican National Committee to "go to hell" after the latter accused the Democratic Party of rigging the presidential nominating process against Bernie Sanders.
Brazile, former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, made the comment Tuesday morning on America's Newsroom on the Fox News Channel.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel had criticized the Democratic nominating process. The front-runners so far in the race for the presidential nomination are Sanders, the "democratic socialist" senator from Vermont, and the more centrist Joe Biden, the former vice president. McDaniel said the party is divided and will probably not have a nominee before its national convention, leading to multiple votes there.
The primary season "is leading towards a brokered convention, which will be rigged against Bernie if those superdelegates have their way on that second vote," McDaniel said. Superdelegates are not pledged to a candidate and can support for their choice. Sanders supporters had often objected to the use of superdelegates in the 2016 race, in which Hillary Clinton bested him for the nomination.
Asked by co-anchor Sandra Smith to respond to McDaniel's comments, Brazile pulled no punches. She said McDaniel and other Republicans should "stay the hell out of our race" and accused them of using "Russian talking points."
"First of all, [Republicans] don't have a process," Brazile said. "They are canceling primaries. They have winner-take-all. They don't have the kind of democracy that we see on the Democratic side."
"For people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans is stupid," she continued. "So, Ronna, go to hell! This is not about -- go to hell! I'm tired of it."
Brazile, now a Fox News contributor, has a long history with the Democratic Party and with LGBTQ causes. She managed Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000. She also served on the board of the Millennium March on Washington for Equality, an LGBTQ rights demonstration, that same year. She has been rumored to be lesbian or bisexual, but she has always been cagey about discussing her sexual orientation. The closest she has come to saying she was anything but straight was on The Wendy Williams Show in 2018; when Williams asked Brazile about her ideal man, she responded, "Who said I just like men?"
