After months of controversy about her role in the party’s presidential primaries, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she will step down as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Advertisement
In a statement that splashed Sunday across national and state media websites, Wasserman Schultz said she would open and close the convention and address delegates about “the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans”. CNN will revisit the contract once Brazile concludes her role.
Wasserman Schultz announced she’s now working for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Chants of “Debbie is done!” and “Debbie resigned!”
Schultz was under enormous pressure over the weekend to step down following the email leak, which, though it didn’t give the Sanders campaign enough proof that the system was “rigged”, revealed that the party was biased toward Clinton. What difference does it make? Did she go behind Hillary Clinton’s back?
“You will never hear me say I only listen to myself on national security”, she said. “So, I’m not quite shocked by this”, Sanders said.
“I would ask her to step aside”.
Speakers supporting Hillary Clinton on this first night of the convention include senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren as well as first lady Michelle Obama.
Unlike Cleveland, where scattershot demonstrations routinely dissolved among infighting and an overwhelming police presence, the protesters descending on the DNC have a more coherent slate of demands and, with a new Wikileaks release of documents that seems to show Democratic officials discussing ways to undermine Sanders’ bid, freshly ignited anger at the party’s handling of the nominating contest.
Sanders has long maintained that the DNC was favoring Clinton and has called on Wasserman Schultz to resign and on CNN Sunday he echoed that statement, calling the emails “outrageous” but unsurprising.
Elias and the Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Wasserman Schultz is such a fixture in Florida politics that Canova is the first primary opponent she’s faced since being elected to the U.S. House in 2004.
“We have to follow through”, she said, adding that she campaigned for Sanders for a year, turning her small business space into a four-day-a-week phone bank and grassroots office for his campaign.
State Senate Minority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37), a Clinton delegate, said that she was glad to see Wasserman Schultz step down so quickly and help to mitigate the damage.
“What she did was a disgrace”, said Philip Johnston, a former Democratic Bay State chairman and U.S. Sen.
In return, Clinton seized upon what she called the “fear and the anger and the resentment” from Trump and Republicans, dismissing Trump’s declaration that only he could fix the problems that afflict the nation.
“It’s gas meets flame”, the Democrat said. The protester shouted “DNC leaks” soon after Clinton thanked Wasserman Schultz for her leadership at the DNC.
The Democratic National Committee had their emails hacked by someone with suspected Russian ties known only as Guccifer 2.0.
Hackers stole opposition research on Donald Trump from the DNC’s servers in mid-June.
Advertisement
A cybersecurity firm they employed found traces of at least two sophisticated hacking groups on their network – both of which have ties to the Russian government.
