The Minnesota delegation has Sanders and Clinton co-chairs, sent both Sanders and Clinton supporters to key convention committees and had planned an all-delegation event at Gov. Mark Dayton’s official residence in St. Paul. In the latest political transgression, vigilante web site, WikiLeaks, released emails from DNC account officials that exposed their agenda against Bernie Sanders during the primary. The site said it was the first part of a forthcoming “Hillary Leaks” series.
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Well, suddenly it was Wasserman Schultz’s outfit under scrutiny – not a renegade campaign, but the Democratic Party itself.
Republican nominee Donald Trump made a direct appeal in his acceptance speech to Sanders supporters on trade and campaign finance reform.
She doesn’t have the high profile of Michelle Obama or Bernie Sanders, but Astrid Silva was tapped as a headline speaker Monday night to hammer home the convention’s opening night theme: United Together.
Overcoming the lingering resentment among Sanders supporters may become the task of the week.
Mrs Clinton’s campaign team has said the hackers who accessed the DNC emails were Russians who want Mr Trump to win the election. Superdelegates are members of the convention who win their right to vote by virtue of their positions in the Democratic Party, not primary or caucus results.
Ellison said he is confident that most Sanders supporters will come around to Clinton.
Still, Sanders delegate Courtney Rowe, 34, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said “we are not here to disrupt for the goal of disruption”.
Sanders’ ire toward Wasserman Schultz has been building for months. At a news conference Sunday, Sanders delegate Norman Solomon, 65, of Point Reyes Station, California, said many of Sanders’ liberal supporters were disappointed in Clinton’s vice presidential pick of Virginia Sen. After a series of denials and suggestions the Clinton campaign was propping up the controversy, a Trump Organizationstaffer eventually acknowledged the error and took the blame. Their stalwart support for the Vermont senator, even after he has endorsed Clinton, is a sign that the party still isn’t unified as the convention starts. For example, the party’s debate schedule – featuring two on Saturday nights and one during a holiday weekend – created the impression to Sanders (and many others) that the DNC had been trying to boost the well-known Clinton over her lesser-known rivals by keeping the debates few and viewership low.
DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic strategist who will lead the party on an interim basis after the convention, warned more leaked emails, and more apologies, could be coming. Clinton and President Barack Obama both quickly praised the departed party chief. Wasserman Schultz spoke Saturday at the rally in Miami at which Kaine was introduced.
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Wasserman Schultz, the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Florida, had been seen as a rising star in the party and a potential candidate for House leadership at the time. But in the last couple of years, she had reportedly fallen out of favor with some Obama loyalists who saw her interests in self-promotion conflicting with her party role. She will formally accept the nomination on Thursday. “And no one works harder for her constituents in Congress”.
