[Paul:] Well, Republican Senator Rand Paul is apparently recovering this morning after he was assaulted. An acquaintance of his has been charged in the attack. Now, the senator suffered minor injuries, we are told, when he was tackled at his home in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This happened Friday afternoon. According to police, Paul's neighbor, Rene Albert Boucher, intentionally attacked him. Boucher is charged with one count of fourth degree assault. Still not clear why Boucher went after Paul, but police are investigating.
[Savidge:] Meanwhile, new details are emerging from former DNC chief Donna Brazile's book about the inner workings of the Democratic Party. According to "The Washington Post", Brazile considered taking Hillary Clinton off the 2016 ticket and replacing her with then Vice President Joe Biden. The move came after Clinton fainted at 911 memorial in New York City during the campaign. And we're also learning that Brazile thought Clinton's campaign headquarters lacked passion and energy and thought that it felt like someone died. A lot of heavy words there. Joining me to discuss all of this is political commentator Errol Louis and CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer. Book comes up right in time for the holidays. And the drip, drip, drip just seems to build up all the anticipation. Julian, first of all, this idea that you would replace Hillary Clinton mid campaign, does that even seem feasible? No, it really doesn't. This seems more like a speculative moment for Donna Brazile than something that was about to happen and she couldn't have done this single-handedly. She would have had to have a lot of support and the vote of many other Democratic officials. And so, this is in the category of bad timing for Democrats to be relitigating the election and the tensions during the election. Right now, when they are probably poised to do pretty well in the mid- term elections, it's just it's a problem for Democrats that this book is coming out right now. And, certainly, we know the Clinton staffers are outraged. I was going to use another word. And they have put out a statement, including Huma Abedin and John Podesta, in which they responded to Brazile's accounts in her memoir, saying, "It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into the false Russian-fueled propaganda spread by both the Russians and our opponent about our candidate's health. We do not recognize the campaign the chief portrays in the book. We are pretty tired of the 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" Errol, how damaging is this? Julian is already alluding to it here. Is it just a fight between Clinton staffers and Donna Brazile? I mean, Donna Brazile was head of the DNC. It was like she's just sort of a person on the sideline.
[Errol Louis, Cnn Political Commentator:] No, that's right. And those of us who have worked with her, she was, of course, a contributor on CNN, have a great deal of respect for her. Look, I thought that the particular revelation that she had sort of at least considered some of the machinery that is in the DNC charter, that gives her the power, I imagine, in some kind of a health emergency to replace the nominee, if need be, I thought in some ways that was both interesting, but a little bit routine. You know? If you can go back to a 911, I mean, there was a great deal of discussion about what happened. She collapsed, for God's sake. She was carried into her car. There was sort of a blackout period when nobody knew what was going on. Under the circumstances, for Donna Brazile to sort of say, if I have to, I have to at least be thinking about what we might do. And she also reveals in the book, in the excerpt at least, she was contacted by Biden's office, by Martin O'Malley's office, the former mayor of Baltimore who was a candidate for president. So, she wasn't the only one who was thinking we don't know how serious this health thing is. Maybe it's nothing, but if it's serious, we are going to have to take some steps.
[Savidge:] But what about her reasoning for not doing it, in which she sort of says, I'm paraphrasing here, so it's not really fair, but something to the effect of she thought of all the women that were supporting Hillary Clinton and just couldn't bring herself to disappointment. That's what it made it sound. It's kind of a throw-away there. A lot of people supported Hillary Clinton.
[Louis:] Well, just I don't know if it was her call to make. I read it more as her sort of not feeling that we could step beyond what the facts of the situation really allowed for.
[Savidge:] Julian, I'm sorry. I cut you there.
[Zelizer:] The problem with that excerpt is, on the one hand, there is the natural concern the head of the DNC would have if there is a health issue. And, at that moment, Errol is talking about, it's reasonable to think that Donna Brazile is just looking at the options on the table. But then the next line suggests it was a more conscious debate about whether she needed to be replaced because the campaign wasn't doing well and Brazile couldn't imagine doing it. So that kind of throw-away line will play into the debate, whether not only was there a problem with the Clinton campaign, but were Democrats wrestling with the idea of removing her, and removing her for someone who didn't really run, which is the other odd part of the story, meaning Vice President Biden as opposed to Sen. Sanders, which will also fuel the flames from that primary.
[Savidge:] I got a feeling there is more to come on this book. Errol Louis and Julian Zelizer, thank you.
[Louis:] Thanks.
[Paul:] Well, still to come, CNN'S Jake Tapper sits down with actor Woody Harrelson, talking about his role as LBJ, Lyndon B. Johnson in that new film "LBJ". You're going to see Woody Harrelson like really you've never seen him before.
[Savidge:] Plus, "Saturday Night Live" takes on a busy week of news for the Trump administration. They put Trump, Paul Manafort and Jeff Sessions together in a shower scene.