Former Democratic National Committee chairman and presidential candidate Howard Dean falsely accused President Donald Trump of lying when the president tweeted about Democratic operative Donna Brazile's claims that the 2016 Democratic primaries were "rigged."
Trump tweeted on Friday that Brazile, the former acting head of the DNC, had said the primaries were "rigged" to favor frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Donna Brazile just stated the DNC RIGGED the system to illegally steal the Primary from Bernie Sanders. Bought and paid for by Crooked H....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
Dean attacked Trump in response, calling his statement a "big fat lie," and claiming "no one" said the primaries were rigged.
As usual, a big fat Lie. Despite all the problems at the DNC, No one has said the primaries were rigged. https://t.co/WFYTzWdtL2
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) November 3, 2017
But in fact, Brazile said she found "proof" the primaries were "rigged" in her upcoming book.
In an excerpt published this week in Politico Magazine, Brazile says she promised Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that she would "get to the bottom of whether Hillary Clinton's team had rigged the nomination process."
"By September 7, the day I called Bernie, I had found my proof and it broke my heart," she wrote a few paragraphs later.
Following the revelations, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) also responded "yes," when asked on CNN if the primaries were rigged.
Former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard agreed, telling the Hill she believed the primaries were "rigged."
"Today we heard from Donna Brazile that what many suspected for a long time, is actually true: the DNC secretly chose their nominee over a year before the primary elections even occurred, turning over DNC control to the Clinton campaign," she said.