Sanders to Back Clinton, Despite DNC Email Leak
Emails showed some DNC staffers plotted against and disregarded Sanders
PHILADELPHIA — Delegates in town to support Sen. Bernie Sanders have grievances, but their candidate will be fully behind the presumptive Democratic nominee when he takes the stage Monday night.
His campaign seemed to want to make clear to supporters that despite their concerns — whether about the contents of leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee that indicated some staffers there had been plotting against him, or the selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as Clinton’s running mate — that Clinton is the obvious choice for November.
A Sanders campaign aide promised a speech touting Clinton’s policies on key domestic issues, including the environment and health care.
Sanders said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that he will use his speech to make the case for his “revolution” to continue.
“We have got to continue to get people involved in the political process at every level,” Sanders said. “And that means not just the U.S. Senate but school board, at every level.”
Sanders also plans to say that his movement is going to, “continue the fight to create a government which represents all of us, and not just the 1 percent — a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice,” according to the aide.
The Sanders campaign did claim victory Saturday night with an agreement to establish a commission designed to curtail the power of super delegates.
The deal prevents what could have been a complicated floor fight at Wells Fargo Arena on Monday.
“This is a tremendous victory for Senator Sanders’ fight to democratize the Democratic Party and reform the Democratic nominating process,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said of the commission on superdelegates. “We were pleased to work with the Clinton campaign to enact this historic commission.”
As proposed, the commission would feature appointees from both campaigns, as well as the Democratic National Committee.
“We haven’t completely eliminated superdelegates, so this fight is not over. But a guaranteed recommendation of two-thirds fewer superdelegates is a major step, and one that I’m excited to continue building on in future years,” said rules committee member Aaron Regunberg, a state lawmaker from Rhode Island who had pushed an effort to completely eliminate the use of superdelegates.
The coming together on reducing the number of party insiders who get to cast votes as delegates without being bound to election results tracks well with the news reported by CNN that Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is expected to no longer have a leading role on the convention stage.
Wasserman Schultz has long been criticized by supporters of Sanders over concerns the DNC put a thumb on the scale in favor of Clinton during the primary process, and the deluge of internal emails released by Wikileaks only added fuel to that fire.
Sanders said Sunday that Wasserman Schultz should step down.
“I think she should resign. Period,” Sanders told ABC. “And i think we need a new chair who is going to lead us in a different direction.”
Bridget Bowman contributed to this report.
