WASHINGTON ― On Thursday, Democratic Party officials held their first staff meeting since Hillary Clinton’s stunning loss to Donald Trump in the presidential race. It didn’t go well.
Donna Brazile, the interim leader of the Democratic National Committee, was giving what one attendee described as “a rip-roaring speech” to about 150 employees, about the need to have hope for wins going forward, when a staffer identified only as Zach stood up with a question.
“Why should we trust you as chair to lead us through this?” he asked, according to two people in the room. “You backed a flawed candidate, and your friend [former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz] plotted through this to support your own gain and yourself.”
Some DNC staffers started to boo and some told him to sit down. Brazile began to answer, but Zach had more to say.
“You are part of the problem,” he continued, blaming Brazile for clearing the path for Trump’s victory by siding with Clinton early on. “You and your friends will die of old age and I’m going to die from climate change. You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy.”
Zach gathered his things and began to walk out. When Brazile called after him, asking where he was going, he told her to go outside and “tell people there” why she should be leading the party.
Two DNC staffers confirmed the exchange.
Asked for comment, Brazile said in an email, “As you can imagine, the individual involved is a member of the staff and I personally do not wish to discuss our internal meetings.”
A DNC spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Brazile, a seasoned Democratic strategist, is the DNC’s interim chair until March 2017, when party officials hold a full DNC meeting to elect a new chair. Brazile has been filling in since July, when then-chair Wasserman Schultz stepped down after WikiLeaks released internal DNC emails showing party officials trying to help Clinton win the Democratic primary.
Brazile ran into her own bit of trouble in October when Wikileaks released emails showing that, in her role as a CNN strategist, she shared questions for CNN-sponsored candidate events in advance with friends on Clinton’s campaign.
Neither of the DNC staffers who spoke to HuffPost knew Zach’s last name, or much about him. They noted that he wasn’t alone in his sentiments. Some in the room nodded as he spoke, they said, and after he left, some talked about him being right on some points (perhaps not his claims about imminent death by climate change).
A third attendee told HuffPost that, despite Zach’s blow-up, there was “overwhelming” support for Brazile in the room. Her motivational words “had some staffers in tears,” per this attendee, and Brazile spoke to Zach’s concerns after he left.
“If he had stayed, he would have heard that,” this person said.
Brazile could move to stay on as chair after March, but Thursday’s meeting shows at least some party officials want fresh blood at the top.
“The party is at a crossroads. They have been using the same playbook for decades, and now, they won’t let anyone else come in and change it up,” said one former longtime DNC staffer, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “The fact that Democrats just sat through a devastating defeat and now have to trust the leadership that not only contributed to Clinton’s loss, but the crushing 2014 midterm losses, well, what do they expect?”
This article has been updated to include comment from a third DNC meeting attendee.
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November 11, 2016, 05:12 PM
skalls
I love the liberal tears.
Went to the range tonight and shot my 627 and MPX. Left feeling great. Things are on the up and up. Everyone at the range had a little pep in their step.
I'm a deplorable.
November 11, 2016, 05:12 PM
JALLEN
Irresponsible, ill-informed speculation!
You can't believe anything she says until it has been officially denied, then appears in Wikileaks.
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
November 11, 2016, 05:18 PM
parabellum
Donna Brazile? Tainted goods are the DNC's stock in trade. It's a match made in heaven.
"I am your retribution." - Donald Trump, speech at CPAC, March 4, 2023
November 11, 2016, 05:18 PM
mbinky
"I'm going to die from climate change" ROTFLMAO!
November 11, 2016, 05:18 PM
TigerDore
quote:
Originally posted by medic451: Well, this angry British lefty sure gets it... Very NSFW- language
"When will we learn that the key is discussion?" -
Their power brokers already know they can't win on this basis, because their ideas are failed and empty.
.
November 11, 2016, 05:20 PM
parabellum
quote:
Originally posted by mbinky: "I'm going to die from climate change" ROTFLMAO!
Yeah, up to that point, I was thinkin' old Gavin or whatever his name is had a set. But, it turns out he's just another ninny.
November 11, 2016, 05:21 PM
Balzé Halzé
quote:
A third attendee told HuffPost that, despite Zach’s blow-up, there was “overwhelming” support for Brazile in the room. Her motivational words “had some staffers in tears,” per this attendee, and Brazile spoke to Zach’s concerns after he left.
Jesus. I'm beginning to think I should've bought stock in Kleenex. My seven month old daughter doesn't cry as much as these delicate mooncalves.
~Alan Acta Non Verba NRA Life Member (Patron) God, Family, Guns, Country
Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan
November 11, 2016, 05:23 PM
olfuzzy
I don't like the guy but I do like this statement
Krauthammer: Obama's Legacy Is Toast, Will End Up Being A "Parenthesis In American History"
November 11, 2016, 05:25 PM
oddball
quote:
Originally posted by wcb6092:
“You are part of the problem,” he continued, blaming Brazile for clearing the path for Trump’s victory by siding with Clinton early on. “You and your friends will die of old age and I’m going to die from climate change. You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy. ”
That is comedy gold
You can't even write shit like that
"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
November 11, 2016, 05:25 PM
Balzé Halzé
^^^^ dude (Sunset_Va), did you just post a chain email?
~Alan Acta Non Verba NRA Life Member (Patron) God, Family, Guns, Country
Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan
November 11, 2016, 05:27 PM
RichardC
I can't find anything showing how Wasserman Schultz took the election night news.
He said, " Florida was won by 407 ballots in 2004." And, currently, " ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THOUSAND BALLOTS " ...
This is a YUUUUGe part of why the Progs were so surprised and dismayed by the way things turned out.
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November 11, 2016, 05:28 PM
sigmonkey
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב!
November 11, 2016, 05:34 PM
Sunset_Va
quote:
Originally posted by Balzé Halzé: ^^^^ dude (Sunset_Va), did you just post a chain email?
A friend had sent it to me , its gone now.
美しい犬
November 11, 2016, 05:36 PM
TigerDore
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
quote:
Originally posted by 46and2:
quote:
Huma Abedin Said To Suffer Emotional Breakdown
"Oh, that's horrible".
No, it's not. Considering that she, her boss and immediate members of both families should be in jail, I can't get worked up about anyone gloating over the effects of the hubris of these crooks. Everybody in the family contributed to that gigantic vat of shit stew; Huma, Hil, Anthony, and Bill.
Her Islamo-fascist bosses are probably mad at her now and her mental anguish probably has more to do with being put on the "to stone" list.
.
November 11, 2016, 05:40 PM
henry claude lemoine
November 11, 2016, 05:41 PM
Ryanp225
quote:
Originally posted by TigerDore:
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
quote:
Originally posted by 46and2:
quote:
Huma Abedin Said To Suffer Emotional Breakdown
"Oh, that's horrible".
No, it's not. Considering that she, her boss and immediate members of both families should be in jail, I can't get worked up about anyone gloating over the effects of the hubris of these crooks. Everybody in the family contributed to that gigantic vat of shit stew; Huma, Hil, Anthony, and Bill.
Her Islamo-fascist bosses are probably mad at her now and her mental anguish probably has more to do with being put on the "to stone" list.
.
May her spot in hell be especially jagged and hot.
