Former Obama aide: Warren’s comments on 2016 primary shaped by 2020 aspirations

Former Obama aide Jen Psaki said Sunday that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) comment about the 2016 Democratic primary being rigged is due to her presidential ambitions.

“The reality here though is that when you have Sen. Elizabeth Warren go out and say ‘this is rigged,’ we should all remember she’s going to run for president in 2020,” Psaki told CNN’s “State of the Union,” downplaying Warren’s previous comments throwing doubt on the 2016 primary.

“She wants Bernie Sanders supporters,” Psaki charged. “There’s political motivation there too.”

{mosads}The comment from Psaki is a reference to Warren’s television appearance last week in which she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she believes the primary was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Warren’s appearance followed an explosive revelation from former Democratic National Committee (DNC) interim chairwoman Donna Brazile in an excerpt from her forthcoming book. Brazile described a fundraising agreement reached in 2015 between the Clinton campaign, the DNC and the joint fundraising committee that allowed the campaign to “control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.” 

“The funding arrangement with HFA and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile wrote of the agreement.

“If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity,” she wrote.

The disclosure has fueled criticism from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who lost the Democratic primary to Clinton.