Former Democratic National Committee chief Donna Brazile will join Fox News as a political contributor.
Brazile, who served as the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign, was ousted from her role as a contributor at CNN after emails hacked by Russian operatives and released by WikiLeaks showed that she leaked debate questions to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The questions she sent to campaign staffers were ones that would likely be asked during the network’s debates and town hall events.
In an appearance on Dana Perino’s Fox News show on Monday, Brazile said that she was joining the network as an opportunity to listen and reach out to the “Fox family, because they’re Americans and they care about many of the same issues and concerns” that she possesses.
“This is a critical period in our country,” she added. “It’s a time for dialogue, it’s a time for civility, but most of all, it’s a time for openness. And we’re not going to get ahead by yelling at each other and sending nasty tweets.”
Brazile also marked her new gig with an op-ed on Fox News’ website, in which she described her excitement at joining the network and lamented the hostility and disrespect that dominates America’s national dialogue.“Too often we demonize the intentions of others,” she said. “Our lines of communication are frayed, if not broken.”
She also described the debate on the network that’s been accused of acting essentially as a propaganda arm of President Donald Trump’s administration as “honest and passionate.”
Brazile addressed her skeptics in a statement to The Washington Post on Monday.
“I know I’m going to get criticized from my friends in the progressive movement for being on Fox News .... There’s an audience on Fox News that doesn’t hear enough from Democrats. We have to engage that audience and show Americans of every stripe what we stand for rather than retreat into our ‘safe spaces’ where we simply agree with each other.”
The former CNN contributor also mentioned that she was “no stranger” to the network and was also friendly with hosts including Perino, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.
The Associated Press reported that a source at Fox News said Brazile will not have anything to do with the network’s debates, though the Democratic National Committee already announced that it would exclude Fox News from hosting and televising its 2020 primary debates.