© Joe Skipper / ReutersU.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Collusion with Clinton and the media
A communication from later in May laid out the pros and cons of Wasserman Schultz accepting an invitation to CBS's "Face the Nation," and indicated that the DNC was plotting its moves based on what would be amenable to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"Clinton campaign is a mess, they're afraid of their own shadow and didn't like that we engaged," Luis wrote. "But they'll be unhappy regardless, so better to get out there and do some strong pivots and land good punches on Trump. They can't tell us NOT to do TV right now, we shouldn't pull ourselves out until they actually do."
"It's clear that Bernie messed up and that we're on the right side of history," Luis said in another bullet point, referring to the Nevada convention.
"Let's take this offline," Wasserman Schultz said in response. "I basically agree with you."
Wasserman Schultz brainstormed ideas to attack Sanders' position on the Israel/Palestine conflict with her communications team in one thread, with Wasserman Schultz saying that "the Israel stuff is disturbing" in reference to Sanders' platform committee appointees attempts to include language denouncing the occupation of Palestinian territory in the Democratic platform.
The chairwoman says that the idea "HFA," or Hillary For America, originally proposed the idea of using Israel/Palestine as "an ideal issue to marginalize Sanders on," suggesting that the DNC were exchanging communications about anti-Sanders strategies with the Clinton campaign.
One email released in the Friday leak indicates that the DNC was in close contact with news websites on articles related to the Democratic Party.
A Real Clear Politics article said that Bernie Sanders supporters causing a lack of unity at the Nevada Democratic Convention. "This headline needs to be changed," said Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who serves as Chairperson, or top official, of the DNC.
"We need to push back... Patrice, what happened, DNC had nothing to do with this, right?" Luis Miranda wrote, referring to DNC Director of Party Affairs Patrice Taylor.
Taylor responded saying that the article should be changed the event was run by the state party and the disorder "sounds like internal issues amount Sanders supporters."
"Walter, please connect with Stewart and get him to push back," Miranda wrote. The last email on the thread says: "Done. Article has been updated."
Plotting against Sanders
In a May 5 email, two top DNC executives plotted a smear against Sanders by drawing his Jewish faith into question and painting him as an atheist in strongly religious states.
"It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief," DNC Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall wrote. "Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist."
"AMEN," DNC Chief Executive Officer Amy K. Dacey replied.
In an email that concerns Sanders out-polling Clinton in Rhode Island, one staffer takes a contemptuous tone of Sanders' supporters and how state that reportedly only had a fraction of voting stations open, speaking about them more as a nuisance than an arm of the party.
"If she outperforms this polling, the Bernie camp will go nuts and allege misconduct," the staffer writes, "They'll probably complain regardless, actually."
Another email shows similar 'us and them' language being directed at Bernie Sanders supporters.
"We have the Sanders folks admitting that they lost fair and square, not because we 'rigged' anything," the email said. "Clinton likely to win the state convention with a slim margin and we'll send a release with final delegate numbers."
An email titled "Bernie narrative" sent by DNC National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach to Communications Director Miranda Luis indicates that top officials in the party were trying to find an angle to disparage the Vermont senator in the media.
"Wondering if there's a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess," Paustenbach wrote in the May 21 message. "Specifically, [Debbie Wasserman Schultz] had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they'd either ignored or forgotten to something critical."
"It's not a DNC conspiracy, it's because they never had their act together," the official suggested.
Writing off Bernie
Wasserman Schultz seemed to count Bernie Sanders out of the race in a May 21 email, when there were still nine primaries to go.
"This is a silly story," the chairwoman said. "He isn't going to be president."
In another email, Paustenbach informed her said the Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the candidate should continue to the convention, Wasserman Shultz said: "He is an ASS," referring to Weaver.
Wasserman Schultz makes her opinion clear about Sanders in an message concerning the candidate alleging that the party hadn't been fair to him.
"Spoken like someone who has never been a member of the Democratic Party and has no understanding of what we do," she said.
There seems to be clear bias in the aggregate as well. Searches of the database shows an apparent bias by DNC officials against Sanders just by how closely either campaign was monitored. A search of "Sanders supporters" yields 306 messages, while a search of "Clinton supporters" shows only 65 results. A search of "his campaign" yields 780 results, while "her campaign" only brings up a paltry 120 results.
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter