Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) on Monday dismissed the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s influence over the Democratic National Committee during the party’s presidential primary.
McAuliffe insisted to MSNBC’s Katy Tur that the revelations from former interim DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile about Clinton's control over the DNC did not matter. The governor, a former DNC chairman, simply repeated that nobody cares about Brazile’s comments and the controversy it has engendered over whether the DNC rigged the primary for Clinton.
"Nobody cares," McAuliffe said. "Nobody cares about what Donna Brazile has said in a book. Nobody."
Over McAuliffe’s continuous objections that "nobody cares," Tur played a clip of Brazile from Sunday on ABC’s "This Week."
"For those who are telling me to shut up, they told Hillary that a couple months ago. You know what I tell them? Go to hell," Brazile said. "I’m going to tell my story."
"You don’t think anybody cares about her story?" Tur asked after the clip played.
"Nobody cares," McAuliffe repeated before shifting to talk about the Virginia gubernatorial election. "They care about beating Donald Trump tomorrow, beating [Republican gubernatorial candidate] Ed Gillespie."
The Virginia governor had no hesitation in presenting the race as a referendum on Trump. Polls have showed a tightening race, but McAuliffe insisted that he was completely confident Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam would win.
McAuliffe, a close friend of the Clintons in addition to being the former DNC head, disparaged people in the Washington, D.C. "bubble" for caring about the DNC controversy.
"I know everybody in Washington, in the little bubble, loves to talk about this stuff," he said. "I did not get asked. I met thousands of people this weekend canvassing. Not one single person asked me."
Later in the interview, McAuliffe told Tur she should "smile" more because things are going well in Virginia and in the Democratic Party.