Exclusive — Book: Paranoid Hillary Clinton Campaign Feared Russians Would Poison Her with Donald Trump Debate Handshake

Former Secretary of State and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign staffers were so paranoid they actually thought the Russians would poison her via a handshake with her opposing candidate for president, Donald Trump, at one of their debates, a forthcoming book reveals.

The episode is recounted in the book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, an excerpt of which was obtained exclusively by Breitbart News ahead of the book’s publication. The book comes out next week.

Haberman’s book uncovers that senior advisers to Clinton actually believed—in an extreme state of paranoia—that Trump would engage in some kind of secret plot with the Russians to deliver a poison to her via handshake before the third debate in 2016.