Leaked DNC emails reveal secret plans to take on Sanders

July 22, 2016, 02:21 pm

Leaked DNC emails reveal secret plans to take on Sanders

http://thehill.com/sites/default/fil...?itok=WWoQwxj4

The Sanders campaign had long claimed the DNC and Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz had tipped the scales in favor of Hillary Clinton during the party’s presidential primary.

The email release will reignite that controversy just days before Democrats gather in Philadelphia for their convention to officially nominate Clinton for president.

Guccifer 2.0 told The Hill he leaked the documents to Wikileaks.

In one May 21 email, DNC press secretary Mark Paustenbach writes to communications director Luis Miranda about planting a narrative to the media that Sanders’s “campaign was a mess.”

“Specifically, [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,” he wrote.

“It's not a DNC conspiracy, it's because they never had their act together,” Paustenbach concluded.

In another email from early May, DNC CFO Brad Marshall appears to write about a plan to question Sanders’s religion.

The email does not name the Vermont senator, but it talks about a man of “Jewish heritage” Marshall believes to be an atheist. It makes reference to voters in Kentucky and West Virginia, two states that were holding upcoming primary elections.

“It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. 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,” the email says.

Marshall did not respond to a request for comment. But he did tell The Intercept, which first noticed the email, “I do not recall this. I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate.”

Wasserman Schultz wrote in May that Sanders "isn't going to be president" and in April that he “has no understanding of” the Democratic Party.

Emails from Wasserman Schultz pertaining to Sanders show a frustration with his campaign's claims of DNC bias and with media reports focused on Sanders's battles with the committee.

Wasserman Schultz sent an email to NBC anchor Chuck Todd with the subject line "Chuck, this must stop," and set up a time for the two to talk about MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski calling on Wasserman Schultz to step down.

In another email chain, Miranda said Brzezinski was willing to talk with Wasserman Schultz.

"She's already served as a judge and jury without even bothering to talk to me. Not sure why I should trust having a conversation with her would make any difference. Or that she even matters, to be frank," Wasserman Schultz wrote back after a brief exchange.

In response to a New York Times story about Sanders's defiance in the wake May's unruly Democratic state convention in Nevada, Wasserman Schultz wrote: "Every time they get caught doing something wrong, they use the tactic of blaming me. Not working this time."


Jonathan Easley and Evelyn Rupert contributed.

Updated at 3:36 p.m.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...ake-on-sanders

July 22, 2016, 02:36 pm

Wasserman Schultz called top Sanders aide a 'damn liar' in leaked email

http://thehill.com/sites/default/fil...?itok=Q7hH6EcT

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) privately lashed out about a top Bernie Sanders campaign aide, calling him a "damn liar" in an email earlier this year.

"Damn liar. Particularly scummy that he barely acknowledges the violent and threatening behavior that occurred," Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), wrote to DNC staffers in an email dated from May 17, shortly after a contentious Nevada convention fight between supporters of Sanders and Hillary Clinton over delegates.

The email is among more than 19,000 DNC emails posted online Friday by WikiLeaks.

Wasserman Schultz in her email was referring to Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver, who during a CNN appearance had said the Nevada state party hadn't been fair.

"It is not a reflection of all Democrats in Nevada, but the party hierarchy, there’s a lot of problems there," he told CNN's Jake Tapper at the time. "We have interacted with state parties all across the country. And some are more fair than others. Some are, I have to say, some are extremely fair. It just happens in Nevada not to be the case."

Wasserman Schultz also balsted Weaver in a separate email in May, calling him "an ASS" for saying Sanders would stay in the race until the convention.

The leaked Wasserman Schultz emails come days ahead of the party's convention in Philadelphia next week, when Democrats are expected to formally name Clinton as the nominee. Sanders is scheduled to speak Monday, in what Clinton supporters hope will help unite the party going into November.

But the emails could reopen a long simmering feud between the DNC and the Sanders campaign, which claimed for months that the party and Wasserman Schultz were biased in favor of the Clinton campaign throughout the primary.

Sanders supporters have called for Wasserman Schultz to be replaced. Sanders also endorsed her primary opponent, but CNN reported earlier this month that she was safe in her spot atop the DNC until at the November elections.

Many emails highlight the tensions between the two camps and some show DNC officials discussing how to undermine Sanders's presidential bid.

Comments from Sanders in April about the state of the race and how he didn't believe the party had been "fair" to him also earned a sharp rebuke from Wasserman Schultz.

"Spoken like someone who has never been a member of the Democratic Party and has no understanding of what we do," she wrote in an internal email about the Independent Vermont senator.

In a separate email in early May, Mark Paustenbach, a Democratic spokesman, floated pushing the story that Sanders "never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess."

"Specifically, DWS had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they'd either ignored or forgotten to something critical," he added in the email.

This story was updated at 3:16 p.m.


http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...de-a-damn-liar