MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell declared Thursday that there was no basis for accusations that Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile fed a town hall question to Hillary Clinton in March, despite Brazile's own email saying that she did so.
Discussing Donald Trump tweeting that Clinton got debate questions ahead of time, MSNBC reporter Katy Tur explained he was likely referring to the Brazile saga.
"Oh, that was completely knocked down," Mitchell said quickly. "That was completely knocked down. That was a Donna Brazile issue, and she was a panelist."
"Yes. There's just no evidence to support this whatsoever is the point that I want to make," Tur said.
The story in question stems from an email released by WikiLeaks from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's account. Saying in a subject line in March that she sometimes gets the questions in advance, Brazile, then a CNN contributor, expressed concern about a potential death penalty question for Clinton at a CNN town hall that wound up being asked.
The Daily Caller reports:
The email was hacked from the Gmail account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and released by WikiLeaks.
In her email to [Jennifer] Palmieri, Brazile included a question about the death penalty which was asked verbatim the next day in the CNN/TV One town hall.
Brazile initially claimed that she was referring to questions she had received in advance of an appearance on a talk show panel. But the death penalty was not discussed in any of her appearances the next day. TV One's Roland Martin asked the question of Clinton.
Brazile took over as interim DNC chair in July after the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.). Brazile awkwardly denied the charge of feeding the campaign the question during a Fox News interview Wednesday night, at one point saying she would not be "persecuted."