Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House

by Donna Brazile

The story described the hackers sneaking into the DNC in the summer of 2015, almost a year before anyone figured out they were there. They burrowed in deep and didn’t make a sound. They didn’t install a big, shiny piece of malware that could be detected during a routine security scan of the system. They tucked this evil thing into a vulnerability in the Windows operating software where it quietly soaked up the DNC’s emails, voice mails, and chat traffic for almost an entire year.

Minyon, always elegant in her manners, had another delicate piece of advice for me about dealing with the smart young people in Brooklyn. “Donna, you cannot cuss these kids out because it will shut them down,” Minyon said. “What the fuck?” I said. Damn! They picked the wrong woman for this job.

In many ways, the cyberattack on the DNC was a twenty-first-century version of the famous 1972 Watergate break-in. This time, cyberthieves broke into the party’s computer server and stole confidential information. I described the party’s dire financial situation and how it was being bled dry and was staggering around without an ability to lead itself out of this darkness.

In campaigns, it’s not just about electing a candidate. It’s about getting citizens more engaged in their democracy and giving them a voice. The campaign succeeds when it makes supporters feel that they hold in their own hands the power to change the country. When you have that feeling, you usually aren’t too quiet about it.

You build enthusiasm among those you can depend on and make that support so powerful that it spills over into the areas surrounding the little piece of turf you can depend upon. This is how you build enthusiasm for Election Day.

The Spook described Russian president Vladimir Putin as a man who yearned for the old order, when the Soviet Union was as big as the United States and the two countries were well-matched adversaries. Although Russia now was smaller and weaker, it was wily and well-informed about the intricacies of American politics. Russia still could have an impact in sowing dissension inside the United States. The term the Russians had for this was “active measures.”

Active measures are designed to destabilize the politics of whatever country the Russians attack. They manipulate the media, spreading propaganda and disinformation along with forgeries of official documents. These active measures create discord within communities, making people doubt their leaders and believe false narratives about what is transpiring right before their eyes. As examples, the Spook pointed to people doubting that the intelligence agencies are giving the public correct information, seeding the idea that they have an agenda of their own. These active measures also create doubt about the integrity of the elections, and get people to doubt the motives of a free press. “They call it political warfare,”

Inside the five days of the Democratic convention, the threats and harassment created by the leaked emails slowed the staff work considerably. The fact that we had pulled off a harmonious convention defeated these active measures that time, but it was clear that the Russians were not done yet. As Trump was campaigning, he spoke with admiration about Putin and cast doubt on the idea that these leaked emails came from the Russians. Trump, unwittingly or on purpose, was part of these active measures. If I told the world what I had found out about Hillary’s surreptitious control of the Democratic Party, I could be seen as part of the active measures, too.

“I know there are only sixty days left to make our case—and don’t get complacent, don’t see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think, ‘Well, he’s done this time.’ We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up,” she said. When she said “basket of deplorables,”

In America we don’t let others fix things for us. The best solutions, the best connections to each other, come from working together. It’s never been clearer that all voices need to be heard as we look toward the future.