Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake struck the gavel at 4 p.m.to usher in the start of the convention, which serves to unite the Democratic party heading into the 2016 Presidential election.
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Clinton’s four-day celebration took an early hit with the pre-convention release of nearly 20,000 Democratic Party emails by Wikileaks, some of which showed Democratic staffers clearly favoring Clinton over Vermont Sen.
This comes after it was announced that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will not gavel in the convention. In one email, a DNC official suggests the party could damage Sanders in the South by pressing him on his religious beliefs.
“I have been coming to conventions since ’92”, she said.
The first time that Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned during the convention came during the invocation, and while there was a round of cheers, there was also a burst of “Bernie!” chants that lasted for about 20 seconds.
Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, was booed at a morning breakfast with other Florida delegates and promptly withdrew from her speaking role to avoid further controversy. “But she could get a position with the Democratic National Party”, said Vatz.
“Our party knows that diversity is not our problem, but is our promise”, Cummings said.
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Bernie Sanders has thanked his delegates at a meeting before the Democratic National Convention, saying “make no mistake about it, we have made history”.
