When philosopher, political activist, social critic, and former educator Dr. Cornel West announced on June 5 that he would be running for president as a third-party candidate instead of as a Democrat, he might have avoided the high probability of cheating in the Democratic National Committee primary.

The Democrats have the dark cloud of the 2016 primary when breakout candidate Progressive Democrat Bernie Sanders was stealing the spotlight from former First Lady Hillary Clinton, who was also bidding for the White House. The DNC, instead of putting their support behind Sanders, pushed Clinton at all costs. She was put forth as the candidate. The move sparked calls of favoritism at the time, but it was later revealed that it was a matter of cheating.

In 2017, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren was asked about the DNC’s decision to use Clinton as the candidate, she told CNN she believed that the DNC was “rigged” in favor of Clinton during the 2016 primary.

Warren’s opinion came after Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile admitted the nomination was fixed for Clinton. Warren called that “a real problem.”

“But what we’ve got to do as Democrats now is we’ve got to hold this party accountable,” Warren noted.

Brazile has taken over from the former chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned to to the scandal.

“Debbie (Wasserman Schultz) was not a good manager,” Brazile wrote in excerpts of her book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House” released in Politico. “She hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party – she let Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired so she didn’t have to inform the party officers how bad the situation was.”

Brazile herself later was in hot water for leaking town hall topics to Clinton’s campaign, giving a heads up over the other Democrat candidates.

She later said it was a “mistake I will forever regret.”

In this July 26, 2016 file photo, Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Donna Brazile takes the stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)/In this Nov. 3, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., appear at a rally at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)/Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) speaks during a meeting with local religious, education and LGBT+ leaders, April 12, 2023, in Sunrise, Fla. They denounced legislation currently debated in Tallahassee. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)