Veteran political analyst Donna Brazile has resigned from CNN after leaked emails revealed that she had given presidential candidate Hillary Clinton questions ahead of a March town hall and primary debate. Brazile had temporarily left the network back in July when she became interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Ironically, Brazile took on the position after former chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down as a result of leaked emails that revealed Schultz’s support for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. CNN released a statement confirming that it had accepted Brazile’s resignation on October 14th.
According to the New York Times,
The network’s announcement came shortly after a new batch of hacked emails, released by WikiLeaks on Monday, revealed a note from Ms. Brazile sent on March 5 — a day before a CNN-sponsored debate in Flint, Mich. — with this subject line: “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash.”
“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” Ms. Brazile wrote to John Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, and Jennifer Palmieri, the candidate’s communications director.
Brazile responded to the news of her accepted resignation with two short statements on Twitter.
Thank you @CNN. Honored to be a Democratic Strategist and commentator on the network. Godspeed to all my former colleagues.
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) October 31, 2016
For media, please refer to my October 11th statement. For my friends, don't forget to check your status by going to #IWillVote.com. #Freedom
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) October 31, 2016
The statement in question, however, flatly denies any wrongdoing:
As a longtime political activist with deep ties to our party, I supported all of our candidates for president. I often shared my thoughts with each and every campaign, and any suggestions that indicate otherwise are simply untrue. As it pertains to the CNN Debates, I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did.
As of now, Brazile’s future with the Democratic National Committee remains in question.