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How Clinton’s Secret Deal With Wasserman Schultz Shafted Sanders

A new book by Democratic supremo Donna Brazile claims that a secret deal between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC allowed the Clinton team to control the national party’s finances and strategy during the primary season — effectively sabotaging Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In an excerpt in Politico from her upcoming book, Brazile wrote that former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who resigned due to allegations of bias against Sanders, “had not been the most active chair in fundraising” and “was not a good manager.”

When Brazile took over as interim DNC chair after Wasserman Schultz quit, she discovered a secret agreement signed in August 2015 between Clinton campaign chair Robby Mook and DNC CEO Amy Dacey, who was appointed by Wasserman Schultz.

“In exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised,” Brazile wrote. Such agreements are normally signed only after a candidate earns the party’s nomination.

Brazile wrote that when she called Sanders weeks before the November election to inform him of her discovery, the senator “took this stoically. He did not yell or express outrage. Instead he asked me what I thought Hillary’s chances were” of beating Donald Trump.

When Brazile hung up the phone, she “started to cry, not out of guilt, but out of anger.”

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink

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