According to Brazile, the party was broke – $24 million in the hole after President Barack Obama‘s successful re-election campaign of 2012 – and that the Hillary camp agreed to make the party solvent again on the condition „that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party‘s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.“

This is significant because, as Brazile points out, a candidate gets to control the party after he or she wins the party‘s nomination for president, not before. But Clinton managed to seize control of the DNC in August 2015. She wouldn‘t be the official nominee for almost another year.