The DNC email leak, which has been roiling the Democratic Party since Friday, claimed its first party victim: once-powerful DNC boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The DNC chair said late Sunday she will resign after this week’s Democratic National Convention.
Schultz clearly sought to railroad Bernie Sanders out of the primary, according to the documents and emails revealed by Russian hackers (and published by Wikipedia). She was encouraging her party colleagues to do everything from spreading rumors about Sanders’s atheism, to pushing stories about his supporters’ violent behavior, in an effort to stem Sanders’s threat to the presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton.
This clearly didn’t sit well with Democratic supporters. Early Sunday morning, just hours before she was to gavel in the DNC, Schultz was called to meet with Democratic party bigwigs and, subsequently, relieved of all of her convention responsibilities as DNC chair.
Sources told CNN then that they believed Schultz would be “gone by the end of the day.” Both Sanders and Clinton officials reportedly supported ousting Debbie as soon as possible, and at 4pm on Sunday, Schultz proffered her resignation.
Friends of the Florida Representative told media that she believes “she can weather this.” Schultz is facing a Bernie-backed opponent for her Florida Congressional seat, and aggrieved Florida Bernie supporters have already filed a lawsuit against her for “rigging the system.”
According to sources on the ground in Philly, thousands of Bernie supporters are considering a massive Monday protest against the DNC. There are even rumors that Bernie-backing delegates may mount a floor challenge to Tim Kaine’s nomination to Vice President.
Sanders supporters are looking for a public apology, but that’s not really in Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s political DNA. She will, however, address DNC delegates, at least according to recent reports.
The Russian hackers who partnered with Wikileaks to publish 20,000 DNC emails, stolen last month during a hack on the party’s server, say they’ll be revealing more information over the course of the week.