NBC
DNC chair Tom Perez on "Meet The Press."
- Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez dismissed Donna Brazile's concerns about Hillary Clinton's health during the 2016 election.
- Former Clinton campaign staff have admonished Brazile for writing a book reflecting on how she saw the 2016 election.
Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez dismissed claims made by former interim DNC chair Donna Brazile in her forthcoming tell-all book about the 2016 election.
In an interview on "Meet The Press" Sunday, the current DNC chair took issue with Brazile's claim that she considered attempting to replace Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after she struggled to walk while leaving a 9/11 memorial event in 2016.
"The charge that Hillary Clinton was somewhere incapacitated is quite frankly ludicrous," Perez said, though he noted he had "great respect" for Brazile.
Perez also wondered whether Brazile's claim about attempting to replace Clinton undermined other claims in her book.
"Frankly, what saddens me about this as much as anything is I think people who read that charge, which is just without merit, are going to perhaps start wondering about other claims in the book," Perez said.
The current chair did not answer whether he believed the DNC played favorites in the 2016 election, but pledged to improve the 2020 primary process.
"We have to do better is what we have to do," Perez said. "That's why I was very clear during our primary campaign, [and] during the campaign for DNC chair that we have to make sure that everybody feels at the end of the process that everyone got a fair shake."
The chair joined a chorus of former Clinton backers over the weekend who slammed Brazile's book, which criticized the Clinton campaign for being dismissive of concerns about tactics and out of touch with American voters.
On Saturday, former top members of the campaign signed an open letter, saying they "do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book."
"We are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside of our campaign and how we felt about it," the letter said.
For her part, Brazile on Sunday blasted critics of her decision to write a book.
"For those telling me to shut up, they told Hillary that a couple months ago. You know what I tell them? Go to hell," Brazile told ABC on Sunday. "I'm going to tell my story."