Reince Priebus and Donna Brazile, who have both respectively chaired the Republican and Democrat National Committees, got caught in a fiery debate over what was more harmful for democracy: attempted assassinations or plain lies.
The pair were members of a panel on ABC’s This Week Sunday but decided to take over the air time with their heated exchange.
When asked by ABC host George Stephanopolous whether it was right that Trump blamed the assassination attempt on the Democrats, Priebus claimed the Republican presidential candidate would protect democracy.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The fact of the matter is if Donald Trump’s head was one tiny twist in the other direction, he would be dead right now, and what would be happening in America right now?” he said.
“I’m not suggesting the Democrats are doing it. But the rhetoric that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy was a Democrat talking point and the other talking point now is that he wants to monitor women’s pregnancies, that Trump said if he doesn’t win there’s going to be a bloodbath.”
“So look, with all of this stuff, the one thing that I do agree is that the rhetoric should calm down. But it’s a part of the Democrat tactic to win this election is to paint Donald Trump as a threat to the very public republic that we live in,” he concluded.
But later in the segment when asked an unrelated question, Brazile turned to Priebus to address his earlier comments defending Trump.
“Look, I gotta say something to you,” Brazile said as she turned to Priebus. “I have come out of the civil rights movement. Non-violence was our touchstone. We made change by going out there protesting because we wanted to change our country to make sure that everybody was included.”
After declaring that she had been a Democrat since she was 18, she said: “There’s no place for violent rhetoric. When you threaten election workers, when you threaten to execute your, quote, unquote, former joint chief of staff, Mr. Milley, when you mock Nancy Pelosi’s husband being beaten by a hammer, I don’t want to be lectured by Eric Trump. Who the hell is Eric Trump saying Democrats? There’s no place for violence of any kind, and this is something that needs to be said.”
Brazile then made her statement more personal to Priebus, calling him “brother.”
“I was there with you, brother, Mr. Priebus. I was there with you the day that Mr. Trump had that attempted assassination. The Biden campaign put down all their ads just like they did during Covid, and they said, we are going to stop this. We need both political parties, both leaders.”
Despite claiming rhetoric had been too heated in recent debates between Democrats and Republicans, Priebus contradicted himself as he went on the attack against Brazile.
“This is not a monologue, Donna,” he interrupted.
“I’m not holy, baby,” he later said. “I’m telling the truth. The floodgate of lies! You don’t.”
Priebus and Brazile went on to analyze each other’s rhetoric, with Stephanopolous having to step in to order Priebus to admit that blaming Democrats for assassination attempts was “wrong.”
“I just said it, okay, but it’s also wrong to paint the president of the United States – President Trump,” Priebus began.
“The former president!” Brazile corrected.
After a few exchanges, Brazile was visibly annoyed and sighed “oh wow.”
