Democratic Rep. André Carson (Ind.) on Thursday dodged repeated questions from CNN host Wolf Blitzer about former acting Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile's allegations that the DNC conspired with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign to effectively give her control of the national party during the 2016 primaries.
Politico Magazine published an excerpt from Brazile's forthcoming book, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House, on Thursday with the headline, "Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC."
Blitzer said that Brazile alleges in her book that Clinton reached a formal deal before Brazile arrived at the DNC to effectively control the party long before she became the official nominee in the contested 2016 Democratic primary with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).
"In exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party's finances, strategy, and all the money raised. That deal was signed in August of 2015, a year before Hillary Clinton actually won the party's presidential nomination. What's your reaction to this?" Blitzer asked.
Carson said that he has not yet read the book but is excited to hear what Brazile has to say, noting that she is a "brilliant thinker" and a "former [Capitol] Hill staffer."
Blitzer reminded Carson that the DNC is not supposed to take sides during the Democratic primary of a presidential race and that Sanders and his supporters are presumedly upset after reading about Brazile's allegations.
"Well, I wasn't privy to any kind of deal," Carson said. "We were focused in Indiana, statewide, and even in the seventh district in terms of getting the vote out, making sure voters were engaged, making sure our constituents saw us working with locally elected officials to really talk about the changing tide that we saw in our country and how we can deal with that."
"But if what Donna Brazile is now saying in this new book is true, I assume you would be pretty upset that there was this formal arrangement to use the DNC, the assets of the DNC, which are considerable, to help this one Democratic presidential candidate, and in the process hurt others who might want to challenge her for the party's nomination," Blitzer said.
Carson deflected Blitzer's comments and talked about the importance of Clinton and Sanders' supporters coming together to make sure that President Donald Trump does not get reelected.
"And learn from mistakes in the past and review," Blitzer concluded.
Brazile resigned as a CNN contributor last October after it was revealed that she fed Clinton a debate question at a CNN debate last March while she had a formal role at the network and served as vice chair of the DNC.