CNN Ends Relationship with Donna Brazile After More Email Leaks

CNN has severed all ties with Donna Brazile in the latest fallout from the WikiLeaks hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta’s private emails.

Newly released emails show that Brazile had given the Clinton camp information about a question on the Flint water crisis prior to a CNN town hall-style debate between Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders in March, when Brazile was still working as a political analyst for CNN.

“One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash,” Brazile wrote in a March 5 email to Clinton’s senior campaign aides, per Politico. “Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint.”

These new emails come less than a month after it was revealed that Brazile had given information to the Clinton camp on a question about the death penalty prior to the CNN Democratic debate, also in March.

In response to the new emails, CNN has officially cut ties with Brazile, whose contract had been suspended since July while she acted as interim chairperson for the DNC.

CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said in a statement:

On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile’s resignation as a CNN contributor. (Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.) CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor.

Brazile tweeted today thanking CNN, wishing her former colleagues well, and saying to refer to her original statement from when news of the first incident broke on Oct. 12. That statement said:

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.

While many see Brazile’s actions as being biased against Sanders, former press secretary for the senator’s campaign Symone Sanders (no relation) said in an email:

I can’t speak to what she did or didn’t send to Clinton people. All I can speak to is the relationship our camp had with her. During the primary, Donna regular reached out for messaging guidance from us and was very helpful. She was even handed and we all had a great working relationship with her.