‘Floodgate of Lies!’ ABC’s Donna Brazile and Reince Priebus Slug it Out in Fiery Battle Over Trump Rhetoric

Former GOP chair Reince Priebus and former DNC chair Donna Brazile sparred Sunday in a fiery exchange about the political rhetoric surrounding two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump on Sunday morning.

Brazile and Priebus got into a heated battle over Eric Trump’s blaming rhetoric from Democrats for attempts on his father’s life. Meanwhile, Brazile reminded her counterpart that the language Trump often uses is not always sunshine and rainbows.

On ABC’s This Week, host Geroge Stephanopolous kicked off the exchange when he asked, “Is it appropriate for the president and his son to be suggesting that Democrats are behind the assassination attempt?”

Preibus replied, “Look. I don’t like suggesting any of those things, but the fact of the matter is if Donald Trump’s head was one tiny twist in the other direction, he would be dead right now, and what would be happening in America right now? So yeah. When your dad almost gets killed and when –.”

Stephanopolous cut in and asked, “You blame Democrats?”

Priebus said he was not suggesting Democrats were shooting or attempting to shoot Trump, but that “rhetoric” from Democrats had motivated individuals to target Trump.

Later during the segment, Priebus and Brazile went after one another in the following exchange:

BRAZILE: There’s no place for violent rhetoric, and when you threaten election workers, when you threaten to execute your, quote, unquote, former joint chief of staff, Mr. Milley, when you mock Nancy Pelosi’s husband being beaten by a hammer, I don’t want to be lectured by Eric Trump. Who the hell is Eric Trump saying Democrats? No. There’s no place for violence of any kind, and this is something that needs to be said. I was there with you, brother, Mr. Priebus. I was there with you the day that Mr. Trump had that attempted assassination. The Biden campaign put down all their ads just like they did during Covid, and they said, we are going to stop this. We need both political parties, both leaders. Do not go out there and blame Haitians. Do not go out there and blame immigrants and migrants. That is the rhetoric we hear every day, and if you cannot say Joe Biden won this election? Joe Biden won the election, then you should not – you will not –.

[CROSSTALk]

PRIEBUS: This is not a monologue, Donna.

[CROSSTALK]

PRIEBUS: This is a former president and his son that, number one, came extremely close to losing his life and losing his father. Okay? He’s been called a threat to democracy from the very beginning. They got rid of a sitting president to fulfill their message that he’s a threat to democracy, in order to save this country. They had a sitting president step down, put in a vice president in the summer. This is how they feel about it, and this is how everyone in the Democratic Party feels about it. So don’t sit here and act like holier than thou –.

[CROSSTALK]

BRAZILE: I’m not holy, baby. I’m telling the truth. The floodgate of lies!  You don’t.

PRIEBUS: That’s why you’re not winning, that’s why Harris is behind and that’s why she’s going to lose. It’s the rhetoric.

BRAZILE: She’s not behind.

PRIEBUS: People are not buying the rhetoric.

BRAZILE: Lies.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why can’t you simply say that blaming Democrats for the –.

[CROSSTALK]

PRIEBUS: I would not blame Democrats.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Just say it’s wrong.

PRIEBUS: I just said it, okay, but it’s also wrong to paint the president of the United States – President Trump –

BRAZILE: The former president.

PRIEBUS: As the person that’s going to end the United States of America. What does that do to people’s heads when you do that? What does it do to hundreds of millions of people in America?

BRAZILE: What does that do to legal immigrants? What does that do to legal immigrants when you know you’re lying? What does it do to kids who are trying to go to school?

PRIEBUS: The president’s practically getting killed.

BRAZILE: The democrats condemned that, but the floodgate of lies must stop.

PRIEBUS: What lies, like that President Trump is going to monitor women’s pregnancies? That’s Project 2025. It has nothing to do with President Trump, but it’s a good talking point for the Democrats, but they keep saying it. They lie all the time.

BRAZILE: Oh, wow.

Watch above via ABC News.