Philadelphia’s protests come as Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned under pressure as Democratic Party chairwoman, a stunning leadership shakeup as party officials gather in Philadelphia to nominate Clinton.
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Bernie Sanders supporters numbering in the thousands from all over the country – including OH – marched under a scorching sun Sunday afternoon, calling on the Vermont senator to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
Wasserman Schultz’s announcement Sunday follows a firestorm over hacked emails suggesting the Democratic National Committee favored Clinton during the primary, despite pledging neutrality.
Bernie Sanders had pressed for the party chairwoman to step down.
Houstonians traveling as part of the Texas Delegation had mixed reviews to the emails which Bernie Sanders supporters say prove DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and staffers secretly helped Hillary Clinton.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who is Wasserman Schultz’s counterpart, said in an interview: “There was no way out”.
“The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race”, he said.
Sanders had called on Wasserman Schultz to resign following the latest disclosures and praised her resignation on Sunday. I will never go back to the Democratic Party.
He believes that the email leak won’t impact Sanders’ support of Clinton. He strongly denied that the revelations had changed his support for Clinton and said that the real threat was Trump. In her announcement making Wasserman Schultz, Clinton said that she’d campaign for her re-election in coming weeks.
The Sanders delegates from NY are holding a special meeting Monday morning.
But party disunity is certain to also be a factor in Philadelphia, given Wasserman Schultz’s departure and the general unhappiness among many Sanders supporters, intensified by both the emails and by Clinton’s pick of Sen.
Separately, a Democratic operative said Hispanic leaders close to Clinton and her high command were discussing Housing Secretary Julian Castro as a possible successor to Wasserman Schultz at the DNC helm.
“It is naive to think anyone active in a party is neutral, but her overt actions needed to be above reproach”, said former Houston mayor Annise Parker. After being pressed by JTA, Wasserman Schultz later backtracked, clarifying that she wasn’t pointing a finger at the Republican Party or her Republican colleagues in Congress, but rather Trump and his campaign officials.
“I’ve been a Democrat my entire life”, Neiman said.
Sanders delegates were further frustrated when their efforts to end the party’s use of superdelegates – grandees who are free to vote for whomever they choose at the convention – mostly failed during a series of rules committee votes, according to The Washington Post. A man who appears to be security then confronts Colbert, who says “I know I’m not supposed to be up here, but let’s be honest, neither is Donald Trump” before being led off stage.
Frank noted that if she did not speak, it would be “unusual”.
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But the meeting also revealed unhappiness among Sanders supporters with Clinton’s choice of Kaine as her running mate. By the end of the day, some of Sanders’s supporters mulled putting an alternate name into nomination in opposition to Kaine. He added: “My focus right now is defeating (Donald) Trump, electing Clinton, electing progressive candidates around this country and focusing on the issues that matter the most to working families”. “Yes, I would have”, he said.
