The CNBC executive who oversaw the catastrophic Republican presidential debate in Colorado is married to a Hillary Clinton 2016 donor.
Breitbart News reported that CNBC vice president of communications Brian Steel was the “executive on hand” at Wednesday night’s debate. Steel previously worked in the Bill Clinton White House for Vice President Al Gore and held three different positions in the Clinton administration, including two in Clinton’s Department of Justice.
Steel is married to Eileen Libutti, managing partner at New York City’s Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles LLP law firm. The Manhattan couple is making sure to get in good with Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign.
Libutti donated $2,700 to Hillary For America on June 23, just four months before the CNBC debate.
Steel and Libutti continue to socialize with Clinton administration veterans. They were spotted at an anniversary party in Maine in late June with former Clinton White House press secretary Jake Siewert and Clinton White House staffer Christine Anderson.
Siewert and Anderson also went to Steel’s surprise birthday party in Bridgehampton, New York, thrown for him by Libutti, in August. The party was also attended by former Clinton campaign staffer, Clinton administration official, and Al Gore presidential campaign chief of staff Mike Feldman and his wife, NBC News journalist Savannah Guthrie, as well as supermodel Christy Turlington.
The CNBC debate was rife with moderator attacks on the Republican candidates. The moderators compared Donald Trump to a cartoon super-villain, attacked Ben Carson’s judgment, and wondered why Marco Rubio doesn’t resign from the Senate. Ted Cruz scored one of the night’s biggest applause breaks when he ranted about the moderators’ questions. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has suspended the next NBC News-hosted debate in the aftermath of the CNBC disaster.
Steel told Breitbart News that he was involved in planning the debate and in the execution of public relations issues but was not directly involved on the editorial side.