On Oct. 10, the Dartmouth Political Union hosted its first event in its “Critical Discourse in the Age of Disagreement” series, which will bring experts to campus to debate controversial political topics. The event featured former senior counselor to former President Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway and political strategist Donna Brazile, who debated the importance of the press in the November election.
More than 200 students and community members attended the event, according to DPU president Malcolm Mahoney ’26. At time of publication, a recording of the event on YouTube had garnered more than 60,000 views.
DPU vice president of advancement Kavya Nivarthy ’25, who moderated the debate, opened the forum by asking Brazile about the influence of money in party politics. Brazile, who served as acting chair of the Democratic National Convention in 2011, 2016 and 2017, said the Hillary Clinton campaign “essentially [wrote] the checks for the Democratic Party” before securing her party’s nomination in 2016.
Conway agreed with Brazile’s criticism of party establishments, critiquing the Democratic Party’s decision to prevent Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from appearing on primary ballots and debating President Joe Biden.
“What happened with RFK Jr.?” Conway said. “You kick him out of the party, and he’s more dangerous to [the Democratic Party]. He’s on the ballot in states. He’s helping Trump now. …When the establishment encounters an insurgent, it’s better to keep them in the tent.”
Conway added that she believes it is “incredibly important” to “welcome competition in politics.”
“Primaries are healthy,” she said. “Competition built this country.”
Conway continued by discussing spending on political advertisements.
“I’m very critical of the 2020 Trump Campaign. Why? Because of the money,” Conway said.“They… ran out of money late in the game to run ads in Michigan and Wisconsin. What are you doing running a Super Bowl ad?”
The panelists found common ground on campaign strategy. Both Brazile and Conway agreed that the current quantity of political advertisements has been overwhelming voters.
“There’s stages in politics, particularly with advertising,” Conway said. “We go from penetration of the voters, which you want to do. We then go from penetration to saturation, which is dangerous. Now, we’re at inundation.”
“I’m sick of the ads on both sides,” Brazile agreed.
The debate also included more acute discussion of the 2024 race. Conway criticized what she called news organizations’ “refus[al]” to fact-check Vice President Kamala Harris, adding that there are “entire networks committed to just trashing on Trump.”
“If you look just at the basic coverage of how Trump and Harris or even Trump and Biden … were covered, … it’s overwhelmingly negative stories about Trump, overwhelmingly positive stories about Harris,” she said. “I don’t think that serves the public. I don’t think it’s the media’s job to tell you who their favorite is.”
Brazile asserted that journalists have a moral obligation to the truth.
“Journalists have got to get it right,” Brazile said. “They need to make sure that they are the guardians of the people, to hold their leaders accountable so that we have a democracy.”
As the conversation focused on the media, Nivarthy asked Conway about misinformation, noting that Conway herself was banned from the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” in 2017 for allegedly spreading false information. Conway described Nivarthy’s question as an “attack” and “misinformation.”
“You can’t ban me from doing something I don’t want to do,” Conway said.
Following the moderated questions, Brazile and Conway fielded questions from the audience. Both were asked about the Democratic Party’s decision to support Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee without a primary process to replace Biden in July.
Brazile defended the move as part of the nomination process.
“The delegates represent the people, and the people voted at the [Democratic National] Convention [for Harris],” she said. “The rest is history.”
In contrast, Conway described the support as an “anti-democratic move.”
“[Harris] did not come up with a single Democratic delegate, not one,” Conway said. “I think that this has cost the [Democratic] Party on the whole question of, ‘Who’s better at protecting democracy: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?’ … The Left thinks that protecting democracy is only, exclusively Jan. 6, 2021.”
Attendee William Parocai ’27 praised Brazile and Conway for “creat[ing] an environment that had a lot of constructive criticism and good-quality debate.”
Cooper Ballard ’28, who attended the debate, said he went because he was “really interested in hearing two different perspectives on the upcoming election.”
Despite their disagreements, Brazile and Conway repeatedly reminded the audience of their years-long friendship.
“I see her as ‘Donna,’” Conway said. “I don’t see her as a Democrat. I don’t see her as a political opponent. … I have a lot of friends across the aisle because they’re my friends first, they’re party people second. Maybe 10th, honestly.”
