The controversy led to party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announcing on the eve of the convention’s start that she would step down when it ended.
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Officials say the videos and speeches in this year’s convention will demonstrate a consistency of character over her lifetime, including her activism on issues such as child welfare, health care and women’s rights. In a brief phone conversation with the Sun Sentinel newspaper of Ft.
The Florida congresswoman had announced she would resign her post at the helm of the DNC in the wake of an email scandal involving her aides – but still gavel open and closed the Democrats’ nominating convention this week.
The move came after the publication last week of some 19,000 hacked emails, some of which suggested the DNC was favoring Clinton during the primary season.
“What I’m going to be looking for is, ‘How forcefully do they actually defend Hillary Clinton and her agenda?'” said Stephanopoulos.
Outside the convention, thousands of Sanders’ supporters are expected to protest party leadership and call for reforms. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive favorite, will deliver the convention keynote.
The kickoff lineup had always been meant to appeal to the party’s restive liberal wing, but that task has become unexpectedly urgent. She hoped to save face by retaining a speaking role at the convention, although both the Sanders and Clinton camps were wary of the prospect.
Wasserman Schultz is under fire after leaked emails showed Democratic National Committee officials discussing ways to help Clinton defeat Sanders in the Democratic primaries.
Clinton campaign officials pointed the finger for the hack at Russian military intelligence agencies. Convention officials said the night’s “United Together” theme will focus on building an economy that works for everyone, “not just those at the top” – one of the mantras of Sanders’ campaign.
“The new joke in town is that Russian Federation leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me”, Trump said in another tweet.
Republicans relished Democrats’ pre-convention tumult, just days after they bumped and bumbled through their convention, unsuccessfully trying to paper over their own division. Sanders pressed for Wasserman Schultz to quit as chairwoman immediately.
Many members of the Florida delegation booed embattled DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
For now, party leaders tried to make Wasserman Schultz’s exit as graceful as possible. He can, however, make the case that the Sanders movement has scored some important victories in moving the party to the left, and that a Clinton presidency is the best available option for seeing those victories translated into policy.
The GOP convention featured Republican nominee Donald Trump’s allies bashing Clinton – and delegates frequently chanting “lock her up!” – even as it was short on revelatory personal anecdotes about the Republican nominee (other than from his children).
Clinton was campaigning in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday. Obama will speak on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden will hold his first campaign rally for Clinton next month in his hometown of Scranton, Pa.
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities”, Trump said in Cleveland. “She has to prove that she has walked the talk”, said Eric Reynolds, a Sanders delegate from Contra Costa County in California.
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“She’s put in a lot of work, ” Mook told reporters at a Bloomberg Politics breakfast in Philadelphia. He successfully won major platform concessions, including a $15 federal minimum wage, abolishing the death penalty and breaking up large Wall Street banks.
