DNC chair to exit in wake of email hack
Evidence of effort to undermine Sanders sparks furor in party.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, said Sunday that she would step down from that role at the end of the party’s convention this week after a hack into the party’s internal emails revealed she and top aides had actively attempted to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid.
Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, was meeting with advisers behind closed doors at a hotel here, a day before the party’s
convention was set to begin. She had faced growing calls for her resignation over the weekend.
“I know that electing Hillary Clinton as our next president is critical for America’s future,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “I look forward to serving as a surrogate for her campaign in Florida and across the country to ensure her victory.”
She added, “Going forward, the best way for me to accomplish those goals is to step down as Party Chair at the end of this convention.”
Donna Brazile, the DNC said, will be the interim chairwoman through the election.
In a statement, Clinton said: “I am grateful to Debbie for getting the Democratic Party to this year’s historic convention in Philadelphia, and I know that this week’s events will be a success thanks to her hard work and leadership.”
There was no word on whether Clinton’s campaign had sought Wasserman Schultz’s resignation.
Ben Jealous, a frequent surrogate for Sanders and the former president of the NAACP, said Sunday in Philadelphia that the move “allows us to heal and move on.”
On the eve of Clinton’s nominating convention, some prominent Democrats, including friends of the Clintons, were openly calling on Wasserman Schultz to step down and spare the party the distraction this week.
“In politics, you need not only to know when to draw your sword, but also when to fall on it,” said James Carville, a longtime friend and adviser to the Clintons.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., was even more blunt: “She needs to resign before it gets worse.”
Wasserman Schultz had already been stripped of her speaking role at the convention, according to a senior Democratic official. She said in the statement that she would open and close the convention and address delegates about what is at stake in the election.
Convention organizers expressed nervousness Sunday about the specter of Wasserman Schultz appearing onstage at all during the four-day convention. They were worried that what they intend to be a well-choreographed event, which officials hoped would contrast with the at times chaotic Republican convention, could be marred by Sanders’ backers booing her.
The hack of the Democratic committee’s emails, made public Friday by WikiLeaks, offered undeniable evidence of what Sanders’ supporters had complained about for much of the senator’s contentious primary with Clinton: The party was effectively an arm of Clinton’s campaign.
One email, for example, revealed party officials discussing how to plant stories before primaries in heavily religious Kentucky and West Virginia that would highlight what they suggested was Sanders’ atheism.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Sanders called the attacks on his faith “an outrage” and reiterated his demand that Wasserman Schultz resign.
“I don’t think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC, not only for these awful emails, which revealed the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don’t think her leadership style is doing that,” he said.
Wasserman Schultz has faced a flurry of negative stories during her five-year tenure as the committee’s chairwoman, with critics charging that she was more focused on promoting her own career than on the party. She is said to now be concerned about the effect of her resignation on her own primary: She is facing Sanders supporter Tim Canova Aug. 30.