Brazile admits she forwarded debate questions to Clinton camp

Former interim Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile admitted Friday that she forwarded Democratic primary debate questions to members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign – something she had previously denied.

In an essay for Time published Friday, called “Russian DNC Narrative Played Out Exactly As They Hoped,” the Democratic strategist said she had in fact passed on topics, despite saying she had not when her communications with the campaign were leaked by WikiLeaks in October.

“[I]n October, a subsequent release of emails revealed that among the many things I did in my role as a Democratic operative and D.N.C. Vice Chair prior to assuming the interim D.N.C. Chair position was to share potential town hall topics with the Clinton campaign,” she wrote.

In October, emails from Clinton campaign Chair John Podesta’s account were released by WikiLeaks showing that Brazile – then a CNN contributor – had forwarded questions ahead of a March primary debate.

In one email, Brazile told Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash,” the night before a March 6 CNN primary debate in Flint, Michigan.

“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” Brazile wrote.

The following night, a question along those lines was posed to both Clinton and her primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt.

In another email, dated Mar. 12, she passed on to Palmieri a question on the death penalty set to be asked in a Mar. 13 town hall and said: “From time to time I get the questions in advance.” After Palmieri responded, Brazile wrote back: “I’ll send a few more.”

However, in an interview with Fox News on Oct. 19, Brazile denied helping Clinton during the primaries. She said she was being persecuted and questioned the credibility of the hacked files.

“As a Christian woman, I understand persecution, but I will not sit here and be persecuted,” Brazile said. “Your information is totally false.”

CNN would go on to sever ties with Brazile after the emails were leaked.

In the essay, Brazile said she will “forever regret” the decision to leak the questions to the Clinton campaign.

“My job was to make all our Democratic candidates look good, and I worked closely with both campaigns to make that happen. But sending those emails was a mistake I will forever regret,” she wrote.