Fox News contributor Donna Brazile ripped Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel in a heated on-air exchange Tuesday, with Brazile telling McDaniel to “go to hell” over her allegation that the Democratic primary process will be “rigged” against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt).
The comments from the normally reserved Brazile came after “America’s Newsroom” co-anchor Sandra Smith asked her to respond to McDaniel’s earlier remarks that the Democratic presidential race “is leading towards a brokered convention, which will be rigged against Bernie if those superdelegates have their way on that second vote.”
Brazile, a former interim head of the Democratic National Committee who signed as a Fox News contributor last year, responded by slamming Republicans.
“First of all, [Republicans] don’t have a process,” Brazile said. “They are canceling primaries. They have winner-take-all. They don’t have the kind of democracy that we see on the Democratic side.”
“For people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans, that is stupid,” she added. “So Ronna, go to hell! This is not about — No, go to hell! I’m tired of it!”
McDaniel later responded on Twitter.
“It’s ok, @donnabrazile, I’d be having a bad day too if my party was still hopelessly divided. Talk of a brokered convention and the DNC trying to stop Bernie obviously hit a little close to home,” she wrote.
Co-anchor Ed Henry promised Brazile that the network would try to bring in McDaniel to allow for a one-on-one debate.
“I’m all about reconciliation,” Brazile responded. “It is Lent. I’m trying to keep my karma. But stop lying about the Democratic process.”
Brazile faced a firestorm during the 2016 presidential race after emails released by WikiLeaks showed she had passed along questions to the Clinton campaign before two separate CNN town halls involving Sanders and the former secretary of State. Brazile was serving as a CNN political analyst at the time.
“To be perfectly clear: We have never, ever given a town hall question to anyone beforehand,” CNN said in a statement on Oct. 11, 2016. The network permanently parted ways with Brazile later that month.