DNC Chair: Trump Should Distance Himself From Alt-Right's 'Renaissance of Racism'

Donna Brazile said alt-right is 'almost like a renaissance of racism.'

ByABC News
August 28, 2016, 9:35 AM

— -- Democratic National Committee Interim Chair Donna Brazile called on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to distance himself from the so-called alt-right movement and the racist language of some of his supporters.

"This sort of alt-right movement is very disturbing, it's almost like a renaissance of racism," Brazile told ABC’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week” Sunday.

“There’s no question Donald Trump has had ample opportunity to distance himself from the kind of racist language that comes from some of his supporters,” she said. “I know you can’t choose your supporters out there … but he should distance himself.”

Brazile also addressed newly released emails that show Clinton Foundation donors looking for invitations to State Department events and requesting to sit next to Vice President Joe Biden.

The emails were released as part of a public records lawsuit by conservative group Citizens United and were shared exclusively with ABC News.

Brazile dismissed the revelations in the emails, saying that it is "normal" for supporters or donors to request access to government officials.

“I've been a government official. So, you know, this notion that, somehow or another, someone who is a supporter, someone who is a donor, somebody who's an activist, saying 'I want access, I want to come into a room and I want to meet people' -- we often criminalize behavior that is normal,” Brazile said. “I don’t see what the smoke is.”

She also addressed the recent hack of the Democratic National Committee and responded to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s promise to release “significant” new DNC emails before Election Day.

“The DNC and other institutions are victims of a cybercrime led by thugs,” Brazile said.

“The notion that we're going let some person, you know, put out personal sensitive information across the world, jeopardizing people's privacy, and we're interviewing him as if he's going to have a smoking gun for October. The smoking gun is that we're interviewing somebody who is involved in a cybercrime and not calling him a criminal,” she said.