The Florida events come ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off Monday in Philadelphia.
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The revelations prompted runner-up Bernie Sanders to call for Wasserman Schultz’s resignation Sunday.
The pick comes three days before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where Clinton – and now Kaine – will be elevated as the nominees to the party’s presidential ticket.
Wasserman Schultz had planned to be among those taking the stage, despite the email hacking controversy.
But the single most potent weapon Clinton has to unite Democrats may be Trump. This convention will be a time for Clinton and her supporters to savour the moment as she becomes the first female presidential nominee of a major party.
Clinton campaign officials blamed the hack, which is now being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Russian military intelligence agencies.
“The new joke in town is that Russian Federation leaked the disastrous DNC emails, which should have never been written (stupid), because Putin likes me”, Trump wrote as part of a series of Tweets.
How the emails were stolen hasn’t been confirmed.
A statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that it is “investigating a cyber intrusion involving the DNC”, adding that “a compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously”.
Democrats have known about the hack since April, when party officials discovered malicious software on their computers.
That’s according to a person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Trump has repeatedly suggested a “rigged system” kept Sanders from clinching the Democratic nomination, and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort touted the DNC emails as evidence the committee set up a “rigged system. with the Clinton campaign”.
It wasn’t immediately clear how WikiLeaks got the emails – and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange proudly told Democracy Now! he’d never tell.
Clinton’s campaign didn’t hesitate to make the connection, with campaign manager Robby Mook saying cyber experts believed “Russian state actors were feeding the email to hackers for the goal of helping Donald Trump”.
Trump’s team went out of its way to dismiss the alleged Russian connection as outlandish.
“I want an economy that’s going to help lift millions of people out of poverty, because given the Great Recession, we have fallen back in the wrong direction”, she said, adding that for this she would rely on her husband and former president Bill Clinton and outgoing president Barack Obama.
Whatever the source, the fallout from the leaked emails was swift and dramatic.
The cache of emails leaked on Friday by the WikiLeaks website disclosed that DNC officials explored ways to undercut Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign, including raising questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was an atheist.
The hacking enraged die-hard Sanders supporters who have long claimed that the DNC had its finger on the scale throughout the primaries.
On Saturday, the Sanders campaign texted its 1,900 delegates to urge them not to miss the meeting with the Vermont senator about “continuing the political revolution”, which it described as the “most important thing” delegates can do that week.
Among the things people may not know: Clinton’s Methodist faith is “very significant”, Verveer said, citing an influential youth minister who encouraged her to focus on the underserved, including arranging for her to babysit the children of migrant workers while they picked vegetables. Or “maybe it’s simply just a mutual admiration society”, he told MSNBC.
Pepper said Democrats already made some headway on stitching together the Clinton and Sanders camps, with Sanders endorsing Clinton and the platform committee including many progressive ideas supported by Sanders. Trump himself has spoken favorably about Putin as someone he could negotiate with.
Clinton put out a series of tweets heaping praise on the senator.
Sanders joined a high-wattage lineup of speakers, including first lady Michelle Obama, who delivered a forceful, impassioned defense of the Democratic nominee.
It “was a awful pick”, said Angie Morelli, a Sanders delegate from Nevada. And there may be more shoes to drop: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said US officials expect more cyber threats against the campaigns.
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The Virginian is seen as a safe choice against Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
