Donna Brazile tells critics of her tell-all campaign book to ‘go to hell’

Former Democratic National Committee interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile said Sunday that those who want her to keep quiet about what went on behind the scenes during the 2016 election can “go to hell.”

“For those who are telling me to shut up — they told Hillary that a couple months ago — you know what I tell them? Go to hell,” said Ms. Brazile on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m going to tell my story.”

Former DNC chair @donnabrazile: For those who are telling me to shut up, I tell them “go to hell. I’m going to tell my story.” pic.twitter.com/ppS5allr0O

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 5, 2017

In excerpts from her upcoming book released Thursday, Ms. Brazile said she was stunned to learn that there was a joint fundraising agreement between the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign even before she won the nomination.

The funding arrangement “was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” said Ms. Brazile in her book, “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House,” which is to be released Tuesday.

Ms. Brazile said she also considered whether Mrs. Clinton should be replaced after she fainted on the campaign trail, which prompted nearly 100 former staffers from Hillary for America to sign an open letter disputing Ms. Brazile’s characterization.

“Donna came in to take over the DNC at a very difficult time,” said the letter, which appeared Saturday on the website Medium. “We were grateful to her for doing so. She is a longtime friend and colleague of many of us and has been an important leader in our party. But we do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book.”

They called it “particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health.”

After Mrs. Clinton’s fainting episode, Ms. Brazile said she was “under tremendous pressure” to have a “Plan B,” even though “I didn’t want a Plan B. Plan A was great for me. I supported Hillary and I wanted her to win, but we were under pressure.”

“I say go to hell because, why am I supposed to be the only person that is unable to tell my story?” said Ms. Brazile.

Ms. Brazile took the helm in July 2016 after the departure of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz after the Florida congresswoman resigned amid accusations of favoritism to Mrs. Clinton and against her primary opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders.

Among the 94 ex-campaign aides who signed the letter was longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

“Finally, we are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside of our campaign and how we felt about it,” said the letter.