Brzezinski’s co-host, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough wondered why Sanders would “get in line” for the Democratic Party, given that they “rigged the entire thing”, and that if he was in Sanders” position, “I’d say, “Go straight to hell, I’m running as an independent'”.
Advertisement
The DNC chair brushed off criticism from Sanders’ campaign over the party’s handling of the incident in Nevada, suggesting that the Vermont senator sent a mixed message to supporters.
“When we speak of violence, I should add here that months ago, during the Nevada campaign, shots were fired into my campaign office in Nevada and apartment housing complex my campaign staff lived in was broken into and ransacked”, Sanders said in the statement.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver then reiterated the campaign’s antipathy for violence.
Weaver said he does not know what Wasserman Schultz’s motivation is, but “it is clear there is a pattern of conduct from the beginning of this campaign that has been hostile to Bernie Sanders and his supporters and really she has become a divisive figure in the party”.
Sanders supporters packed the state party convention in the Silver State hoping to win their candidate a few more delegates. “We have had dispute with one state party at this level, the Nevada state party”.
Schultz went on to talk about the threats and other intimidation that Nevada state Democratic Chair Roberta Lange has endured in the weekend’s aftermath, and urged Sanders, along with the Clinton campaign, to make sure this behavior is not repeated.
The Sanders campaign released a statement Monday condemning any violence and threats, but Wasserman Schultz told Blitzer Tuesday night that the campaign’s response was “anything but acceptable”.
“The DNC remains neutral in this primary based on our rules, but when I heard what happened at the Nevada state Democratic convention this weekend I was deeply disturbed”, she said.
This gave the Democratic leadership nightmares about a similar revolt happening in Philadelphia, on national television, during the party’s late-July weeklong infomercial.
Advertisement
But Wasserman Schultz’s dissatisfaction with Sanders’s initial statement is unexceptional. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevadan and Clinton supporter, spoke privately with Sanders before the convention in an attempt to head off any chaos and said afterward that he held Sanders’ campaign accountable for the chaos. “First of all, Bernie did say in his statement that he was against the violence”, he argued.
