Elizabeth Warren Said That the Democrats Tried to Rig the 2016 Primary for Hillary Clinton

Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile penned a shocking article in Politico yesterday, writing that she discovered a contract during her latest interim stint as DNC chair which unnerved her so much that she had to speak out about it. The agreement proved that the Democratic Party was essentially just a subsidiary of the Hillary Clinton campaign before she won the nomination. Per Brazile:

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.

The rest of the article expands on how the Clinton camp wielded control of the DNC’s operations as far back as 2015. Anyone who wants to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 should read her account of the corruption she witnessed firsthand, as all of us on the left must learn from our mistakes in 2016. Brazile is not a Bernie partisan—quite the opposite. She has worked on establishment Democrat campaigns her entire career—twice serving as interim DNC chair—and she even tipped off Hillary Clinton to debate questions coming her way when Brazile worked at CNN. Her report has sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party, as the rot at its core has been completely exposed for all to see.

Elizabeth Warren is something of a bridge between the Bernie and Hillary camps. Her message of economic fairness falls directly in line with the Sanders platform, but Warren supported Clinton in the campaign. While on CNN, Jake Tapper asked her if she believed that the process has been “rigged” in favor of Hillary Clinton, and her response could not be clearer.

. @jaketapper to Senator Warren: “Do you agree with the notion that it was rigged?”

Senator Warren: “Yes.” pic.twitter.com/HC9wPt9tmT

— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) November 2, 2017

There is a very obvious dynamic taking place within the Democratic Party right now. Those who wish to have a bigger role in the future are embracing the Dem’s left flank—demonstrated by 2020 frontrunners Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris endorsing Sanders’ Medicare-for-All bill. Meanwhile, those who already have power—like Nancy Pelosi or new DNC Chair Tom Perez—are denying reality in a bid to hold on to what they already have. Elizabeth Warren has fallen off the radar of 2020 hopefuls, but she still is an incredibly important voice within the Democratic Party, and her matter-of-fact “yes” response to Tapper’s question is yet another prominent signal of which way the winds are blowing on the left. The writing is on the wall for the Democratic Party, it’s only a question of whether they choose to read it.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.