Trump called the emails “dumb” while referring to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the outgoing Democratic National Committee chairwoman, as a “servant”.
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This week’s Democratic convention is supposed to be about showing a party standing behind its presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton – and it was headed in that direction by featuring a speech from Bernie Sanders on opening night Monday.
She was the first woman nominated by a sitting president as Chair of the Democratic National Committee that would formally anoint Clinton as the party’s presidential nominee.
Wasserman Schultz resigned on Sunday, effective at the end of the convention, after the leak of more than 19,000 DNC emails put the spotlight back on Sanders’ failed bid to win the nomination and in particular on his complaints during the campaign that the party establishment was working to undermine him.
It was an embarrassing prelude to the convention in Philadelphia, which Democratic officials had hoped would convey no-drama competence in contrast to the volatile campaign of Trump.
“We feel we have some big opportunities with some groups of voters who have leaned a little more Republican in the past”, he said.
“The Democratic Party’s different than the Republican Party”, he said.
Resistance to Clinton was on display during a demonstration Sunday as many thronged to a main thoroughfare and chanted, “Hell no, DNC, we won’t vote for Hillary”. “Shame! Shame!” and Wasserman Schultz was quickly escorted away from the podium.
“People want to know that the next four years is not going to be a dumpster fire”, he said.
Wasserman Schultz was booed at a raucous Florida delegation breakfast this morning by members of the crowd holding up signs that read “Emails”.
“And I think when you think about the spirit of Philadelphia, I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said, ‘We’re going to hang together or we’re going to hang separately, ‘” Inslee said. So while Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton a few weeks a go was meant to create smooth sailing at the convention, his supporters are up in arms and protested yesterday, a day before the convention.
Wasserman Schultz, who began her tenure as chair in 2011, proved herself to be a prodigious fundraiser for fellow Delegates and an effective party surrogate and attack dog. According to to a release McGinty said: “I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to address DNC delegates and the nation at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday evening”, said McGinty.
Beyond the left-of-center street cred, Warren and Sanders are expected to push the appearance of party unity after a competitive primary season that has left some supporters of the Vermont senator flirting with the idea of staying home, voting third party, or even voting Republican.
Wasserman Schultz had become toxic to supporters of Sanders, who accused her of rigging the Democratic presidential nominating process in favor of Clinton.
“Donald Trump may think America’s in decline, but he’s wrong”.
Clinton, raised in the Sputnik era, once aspired to be an astronaut and, when she was short on cash in college, scavenged the Wellesley campus for discarded items. Trump, as his custom, took to Twitter this weekend to gloat over the Democratic chaos.
Bernie Sanders on Sunday cast the email revelations as unsurprising, telling CNN that the emails were “not a great shock”. “They laughed at Bernie”.
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Wasserman Schultz’s abrupt departure was undoubtedly an effort to keep the Democrats’ gathering from devolving into the tumult that marred last week’s Republican National Convention.
