USA TODAY International Edition
Leaked DNC emails ignite new tensions around convention
Sanders vows to rally around Clinton despite controversy
Democrats hope to project an image of unity Monday as Bernie Sanders delivers opening remarks at the party’s national convention. But an email scandal and the subsequent resignation of the national party’s top official threaten to undermine that theme.
The Vermont senator said Sunday he wasn’t shocked but was “disappointed” by Democratic National Committee emails that suggest DNC officials were hostile toward his presidential campaign and favored former secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In one email among the thousands released by Wikileaks, a DNC official suggests the party could use questions about Sanders’ faith to hurt him in the South. In another email, the DNC’s chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D- Fla., refers to Sanders’ campaign manager as a “damn liar.”
On Sunday, Wasserman Schultz said she will step down as DNC chairwoman at the conclusion of this week’s convention in Philadelphia. But she also said she plans to open and close the convention and to “address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans.”
In appearances on talk shows earlier Sunday, Sanders had again called for Wasserman Schultz’s resignation but said Democrats should focus on defeating GOP nominee Donald Trump, whom he called “perhaps the worst Republican candidate that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
Sanders’ will hammer that point home in his speech Monday and will “rip into Trump” for denying climate change is real, according to his campaign. He also will note the “most progressive platform in Democratic Party history” includes agreements he reached with Clinton to expand access to health care and make public college tuition- free for students from families with annual incomes up to $ 125,000 a year.
Sanders also will tell the 13 million voters who supported him during the primary season that the political revolution they helped him launch continues, according to the campaign.
The DNC emails released by Wikileaks are bound to fuel their sense that national Democratic officials betrayed Sanders. The emails also will make it more difficult for Sanders to rally his supporters behind Clinton on Monday because they likely will believe she was in “collusion” with the DNC, said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
“The wound hasn’t healed yet,” he said. “It’s ripping off the scab and reopening it. In the end, they’re going to vote for her. The impact is on the level of enthusiasm. What ( Democrats) were hoping for is a clean convention with Sanders sending a very clear signal with his speech that ‘ We’re all united behind Clinton.’ These email leaks just make it harder for some of his supporters to do that in a very enthusiastic way.”
Tensions already were high between Sanders and the DNC. Earlier in the campaign, they feuded over the Democratic debate schedule, access to a DNC voter database, a joint fundraising agreement between the DNC and Clinton, and representation on convention committees.
“It confirms what was evident for months — the heavy- handed role of the DNC to predetermine the outcome of the primaries and their one- sided collaboration with the Clinton campaign ( and, apparently, a few people in the media),” emailed Charles Idelson, spokesman for National Nurses United, which supported Sanders’ campaign.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, speaking Sunday on
This Week, noted that the DNC official who questioned Sanders’ faith has apologized, which he called “an appropriate step.” He said the DNC needs to look into the matter, take appropriate action and determine the accuracy of the leaks. Mook said the DNC account apparently was hacked by Russians to benefit Trump.
Recent polls show most Sanders supporters are ready to back Clinton over Trump. A Pew Research Center survey, conducted June 15- 26, found that 85% of Democrats and Democratic- leaning voters who backed Sanders in the primary said they plan to vote for Clinton in the general election. Nine percent said they’ll vote for Trump and 6% said they’ll vote for another candidate or don’t know.