Donna Brazile, the former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a new memoir that just eight weeks before the election she considered replacing Hillary Clinton as the party's presidential nominee, after her fainting spell, with then-Vice President Joe Biden.
"Again and again I thought about Joe Biden," Brazile wrote in her book, The Washington Post reports.
However, "no matter my doubts and my fears about the election and Hillary as a candidate, I could not make good on that threat to replace her," she wrote.
Brazile's book, "Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House," is scheduled to be released Tuesday.
Clinton fainted on the way to her security van after becoming ill at a Sept. 11 memorial service at Ground Zero in New York.
She had to be helped into the vehicle and was later treated for pneumonia.
Two days earlier, Brazile wrote that she saw Clinton backstage at a Manhattan gala and she seemed "wobbly on her feet" and had a "rattled cough."
Brazile said that she recommended Clinton see an acupuncturist.
She wrote that she considered using the power afforded her under the DNC's charter to replace a candidate should they become disabled, the Post reports.
According to Brazile, she received a call from Biden's chief of staff saying the vice president wanted to speak with her the morning after Clinton's fainting spell.
She wrote that she recalled thinking, "Gee, I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about?"
Jeff Weaver, campaign manager for Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, also called to set up a meeting with the former primary challenger — and Brazile wrote that she received an email from former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, another contender.
In addition, Clinton senior official Charlie Baker dropped by her DNC office by surprise, Brazile wrote, saying that Baker was sent by the campaign "to make sure that Donna didn't do anything crazy."
Brazile wrote that she settled on Biden, pairing with New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker. She eventually decided against it.
"I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her," Brazile wrote. "I could not do this to them."