DNC head leaked debate question to Clinton, Podesta emails suggests

A new batch of emails leaked by WikiLeaks from the Gmail account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, were released on Monday, seeming to show Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee and a CNN contributor, giving Clinton a heads up about a likely debate question the day before she was due to take on Bernie Sanders at a primary debate.

A woman did ask about the Flint water crisis at the next debate.

On 11 October, Brazile released a statement – after earlier Podesta emails supposedly showed Brazile leaking a CNN town hall question – declaring: “As it pertains to the CNN debates, I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did.”

A CNN spokeswoman said the network was “completely uncomfortable” with the news that Brazile allegedly leaked a debate question to Clinton’s campaign. In a statement, Lauren Pratapas said:

On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile’s resignation as a CNN contributor. (Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.) CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor.

In another message released on Monday, Podesta emails Neera Tanden, the president of Center for American Progress, about Clinton’s prospects and questions her “instincts” in the campaign.

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WikiLeaks has been publishing batches of the leaked emails all month, after publishing leaks from the DNC’s emails in October. Podesta and the Clinton campaign have refused to confirm the emails are genuine.