Same party but different email scandal
Trump weighs in on Wasserman Schultz’s ouster, Dem hubbub
Democrats ousted convention Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday in an effort to get past an email scandal that stoked simmering resentment among fans of Sen. Bernie Sanders who feel the party mistreated him.
Wasserman Schultz on Sunday said she would step down as chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the wake of the leak of DNC emails showing top officials there trying to undermine Sanders’ campaign. In one of the emails, Wasserman Schultz called Sanders’ campaign manager a “damn liar.”
The release of the emails threatened to undercut Democrats’ efforts to unify the party around Hillary Clinton as she faces Republican nominee Donald Trump in the fall.
Trump used the chairman’s ouster to craft an attack on Clinton, accusing the presumptive Democratic nominee of “disloyalty” toward Wasserman Schultz. Trump claimed Clinton knew all along about DNC efforts to tilt the nomination race toward her.
“Man, I don’t want her covering my back,” Trump said of Clinton.
Antonio Silba, a Clinton delegate from Orlando, called the behavior of Sanders’ supporters shameful.
“They are not listening to their candidate — Bernie doesn’t want them to be doing this,” he said. “Bernie needs to control his people. I don’t consider them Democrats.”
A breakfast for Florida delegates to the Democratic convention turned raucous on Monday when Sanders’ supporters booed the Florida congresswoman off stage.
Kent Willis, a Sanders delegate from Gainesville, said he helped organize the protest at the Florida breakfast to draw attention to the party’s unfair treatment of Sanders.
“Our objective was to express our feelings that the behavior of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Democratic National Committee tipped the scales during the primary,” he said. “It’s a fact now.”