This story originally appeared on People.
Former interim head of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile revealed that after Hillary Clinton fainted on Sept. 11, Brazile considered removing her from the ticket and tapping Joe Biden to take her place.
In Brazile’s forthcoming memoir Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House — which will be released on Tuesday — Brazile detailed why she thought about replacing Clinton, according to The Washington Post.
Partly it was because Brazile thought Clinton’s campaign was “anemic” and had “the odor of failure.” The Post pointed out Brazile said that whenever she was frustrated with Clinton’s aides, she would remind them that the DNC had the power to replace the nominee, should the nominee become disabled.
But after Clinton — who was later diagnosed with pneumonia — fainted during a Sept. 11 memorial service at Ground Zero in New York City, Brazile says she gave serious thought to replacing Clinton and her running mate Sen. Tim Kaine with Biden and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who she felt confident could defeat Donald Trump and appeal to working class voters.
And Brazile said that on Sept. 12 2016, she got a call from Biden’s chief of staff about setting up a time for the two to talk. “Gee, I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about?” Brazile wrote, according to the Washington Post. She said she was also contacted about setting up calls with other prominent Democrats, including Bernie Sanders.
“Again and again I thought about Joe Biden,” Brazile wrote according to the Washington Post, but added that “no matter my doubts and my fears about the election and Hillary as a candidate, I could not make good on that threat to replace her.”
“I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them,” she added.
Jesse Ferguson, the former deputy national press secretary for Clinton’s 2016 campaign released a statement in response to Brazile’s reported comments, calling them shocking and troubling.
“We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees,” Ferguson wrote in a statement attributed from the “Hillary for America 2016 Team”. “It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health.
“The 2016 presidential campaign was unlike any in our history,” Ferguson continued. “It was very difficult for our candidates and our staff. We are very proud that throughout the campaign and the aftermath the staff stuck together, worked as a team, and did the best we could for both Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. We did this for the simple reason that we thought Hillary Clinton would make the best President for the country we all love. We have now, as we did throughout the campaign, enormous love and pride for our candidate, Hillary Clinton. She, more than any of us, persevered through an incredibly difficult campaign and her commitment and stamina inspired us every day. We are very proud of the effort she and the campaign made in both the primary and the general election.”
Ferguson continued, “Finally, 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. We loved our candidate and each other and it remains our honor to have been part of the effort to make Hillary Clinton the 45th President of the United States.”