For months, critics and candidates have been publicly denouncing what they view as open favoritism of the Democratic National Committee (and particularly DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz) toward Hillary Clinton. Even DNC members have objected to the role of the DNC and the view that it is trying to guarantee that Clinton is the nominee. Despite fairly universal criticism of the favoritism showed Clinton (and opposition showed Sanders), Wasserman Shultz and DNC officials publicly denounced any such suggestions of working against Sanders. Now, with the Wikileaks postings, various emails prove that the DNC has been actively working to undermine Sanders and advance their chosen candidate of Hillary Clinton. What continues to shock me is the unblinking dishonesty of Washington. Absent this Wikileaks disclosure, officials would have continued to deny that they secretly undermined all challengers to Clinton. It is sheer mendacity of the power elite in this city that is so chilling.
WikiLeaks posted an email from Mark Paustenbach, the Democratic Party’s national press secretary and deputy communications director, to other staffers discussing how they could create an anti-Sanders narrative that portrays his campaign in disarray and not an acceptable option for voters.
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“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. . .“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. She had to call Bernie after the data breach to make his staff to respond to our concerns. Even then they didn’t get back to us, which is why we had to shut off their access in order to get them to finally let us know exactly how they snooped around HFA’s data.
“It’s not a DNC conspiracy, it’s because they never had their act together,” Paustenbach continued.
Other emails shows collusion with the Clinton campaign and even an effort to start an attack against Sanders on the basis of his religious beliefs. For example, a May 2016 message from DNC CFO Brad Marshall suggested that the party should “get someone to ask” Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders about his religious beliefs.
From:MARSHALL@dnc.org
To: MirandaL@dnc.org, PaustenbachM@dnc.org, DaceyA@dnc.org
Date: 2016-05-05 03:31
Subject: No shit
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 was sent to DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda and Deputy Communications Director Mark Paustenbach. It’s unclear who the “someone” in this message could be — though a member of the press seems like a safe bet. A request for comment sent to Marshall was not immediately returned.
So here you have not only a high ranking DNC official actively working to discredit Sanders (while the DNC is expressing shock over suggestions of favoritism) but suggesting a despicable attack based on his religious beliefs. The emails show both an campaign against Sanders and the falsity of statements made to the public.
A reply to Marshall’s email from DNC CEO Amy Dacey read only “AMEN.”
So it appears that religion runs deep among the DNC staff . . . at least when it comes to destroying Sanders and rigging the election for Clinton. The planned use of a candidate’s religious beliefs or agnostic views against him is a disgraceful and dishonorable act for any party. All of the officials planning such an attack (or staying silent with knowledge of such an attack) should be fired.
At a minimum, in my opinion, Wasserman Schultz should resign in light of these emails and the now reaffirmed allegations of bias at the DNC. Furthermore, these officials should be immediately held accountable if the DNC wishes to regain any semblance of being an honest broker for democratic voters.
What do you think?
FWIW, what I find most disturbing about this is the calculated use of falsehoods to promote Hillary’s campaign. It’s not that Bernie IS an atheist, but that he could be smeared as one to cost him support. Does anybody really think the campaign to portray Trump as anti-hispanic is anything different? Geeesh, Mexico deports hispanic peoples (from Central America) left and right from Mexico to protect Mexican jobs and Mexican sovereignty.
The Democrats are nothing anymore but a party of lies and spins and half-truths all designed to keep them in power. The sad part is that so many Americans fall for it.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I suppose it is to be expected when the DNC extols a candidate known for corruption, untrustworthiness, and political sleaze would also cheat and rig the party election process to favor such a candidate.
Honesty is becoming a trait neither admired nor followed. If anyone believes these types of intrigue and malfeasance will not be carried into a Clinton presidency they are being foolishly and dangerously mistaken. We should expect that it will only get worse once she is in a position of power and nearly impossible to dislodge since the Democratic Party will continue to protect her regardless.
The reason most traditional dems will find it extremely difficult to vote for Hillary is her facilitation of the military atrocities committed against Libyans and the assassination of Ghaddafi.
@SWM
Oh, there you go again with the racissst! canard. And the Trump’s a nazi canard. And next it will be Trump kills Christian babies and drinks their blood canards. Just anything so that you can self-confirm your presumed superiority over Republicans and conservatives. You know, speaking of Nazis, you would have made a great Nazi! You would have fallen for whatever propaganda Goebbels spewed out.
C’mon, start using your brain some! It may have atrophied, in the Democratic echo chambers, but if you start trying to think new thought, I bet you can kick start it! Plus, how about you address the substance of the article, which shows the Democratic Party in full corruption and cheating mode? Instead of trying to spin your way out of it.
How about the attempted “atheist” smear against Bernie? The “religion baiting” divisive stuff. C’mon, don’t you find that reprehensible??? Or, if you don’t find this stuff troubling, maybe that should be “your sign” that you have lost your way. That the Democratic Party has become your religion and your faith, and like I said to you the other day, your faith in that party is not much different than a Pentecostal snake handler who believes every single word of the Bible is literally true.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Justice Holmes,
Have you ever heard of “The Family”? (See Jeff Sharlet It’s not a conspiracy theory.) It’s quite mad and Hillary Clinton is a member of it. If she is not the best servant for them, IMO, they will be rid of her. Here is some info: “Sen. Hillary Clinton has been involved with the Family since 1993 when, as first lady, she joined a White House prayer circle for political wives. Clinton has also sought spiritual counseling from the current head of the Family, Doug Coe. Sharlet argues that Clinton’s longtime association with the Family has helped her forge working relationships with powerful religious conservatives such as Family member and anti-abortion crusader Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.”
I agree, it is all appalling.
How can anyone be surprised by this? Clinton and her minions have always gathered together like a den of thieves. I hope this isn’t our future. She is so completely repugnant to me, it would be hard to see her succeed in taking this country down to the point where nobody has work, no companies can survive here and a few good people who still have jobs will be supporting the many millions. Will the debt go to $30 trillion? Then we will be Greece. The course we are on cannot be sustained.
As Hillary spouts about Trump (angry, negative, etc.) behind the drapery Debbie is twisting and twirling knobs trying to get Sanders ditched. So far it hasn’t worked and the Democrat convention looks to be a doozy. Sanders has young people itching to be heard. There is nothing in a Hillary speech to get a crowd’s emotions roaring. She’ll tell all what she wants to do, but not how. Something she claims Trump doesn’t do. Well, I heard Trump talking about budget cuts, that’s a how, he wants to end Common Core, he wants an immigration process that truly vets anyone wanting to come here. Every penny taxpayers send in will be accounted for. The State Department can’t say “we can’t find what we did with millions of dollars.” Mr. Trump and his staff will find it. If it isn’t good for Americans, they won’t do it. Obscure studies of various insects will need to defend their necessity or find jobs elsewhere. Our military needs upgrades to existing planes and helicopters. Who wants a loved one flying in a craft relying on old materials? Get rid of unnecessary spending and use the money elsewhere, fixing our flying machines. Sell some federally-owned land. The Feds control far too much of our land. Development of land helps the economy and brings jobs. Hillary will change nothing. She genuinely thinks Obama’s two terms have been good for America. People who want work and can’t find a job is not good for America! Pitiful GDP growth, less than 2%, is not good for America. And yes, if members of NATO agreed to transfer funds then they must do it or leave NATO. Leaving them open to aggression on their own is suicide. They can’t do it. They know that and will find the money! I don’t like all the special interests Hillary says she’ll fight for. She should fight for America, all of America, not just her donor friends. We must elect Trump simply because he wants to fix what’s broken and leave alone things that aren’t. And he’ll start the day after the election, if not sooner.
As for the hacked emails regarding collusion with the press, I am waiting to see if there will be any Dan Rather on Brian Williams takedowns. I mean, how is manipulating the news any different than faking the news?
The signs were there and now we have the proof. Of course, it doesn’t matter. The “leaders” of the Corporatist Party have made a lot of promises thst only HRC and now her corporatist running mate can be relied upon to deliver. Even the Kochs are happy with her. It is appalling.
Autumn,
Thanks. Some things need humor to deal with them!
I’m having a really hard time getting information. Evidently Twitter is censoring DNCleaks and other sites about these e-mails. This and collusion by the press with the DNC is one of the scariest things about the whole situation to me.
@Jill
re: “All in all: contempt for voters, contempt for people in general and contempt for the rule of law. But don’t forget, Democrats are better than Republicans so make certain never to consider voting third party!”
Love your sense of humour! The old days of pretending there is a difference is done. Bill Clinton was the first Republican Democrat prez, Obama was the second and HRC would be the third. But we are not falling for it!
It is OK for a political party to have a favorite. Being honest about it is important.
SMM, That is a cynical analysis, one which I am certain the DNC shares.
There is really no need for people to stay with the Democratic party. It is a sham party and there are much better parties to join. Democrats will accept anything as long as its their party doing it, up to and including murder and torture. What does that say about Democrats?
Perhaps it says it’s time for soul searching and that change needs to happen within the people of our nation so that we no longer cynically accept powerful people doing horrible and corrupt things. That would mean not accepting Donal Trump, Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton as our masters on behalf of the oligarchy.
We can do this if we have a heart and mind to.
The third parties are doing better this year.. The libertarians are doing better than the greens because the greens are disorganized. Some have called Stein a sellout because she made overtures to Bernie.
The democrats have lucked out and get to run against Donald Trump. He is the guy that David Duke supports.
While this is really bad I believe there are even worse revelations. Those include the press’ complete collusion with the DNC, attempts to circumvent several FEC rules and the attempt until now, successful attempts to hide fund raising illegalities.
These e-mails show real contempt for voters. One e-mail calls Latinos a brand and explains how to further brand them to the Democratic party. In another staffers going searching for some gays to spice up the look of a party–making it look diverse.
All in all: contempt for voters, contempt for people in general and contempt for the rule of law. But don’t forget, Democrats are better than Republicans so make certain never to consider voting third party!
The democrats have long lost their way. Not one of them has suggested they should drop Hilly from the ticket and find someone unblemished.
Deceit, denial and deception. Demo trademarks. But “What Difference Does It Make?”
But my fellow Dems, its for your own good! lol Democracy, shamock-ra-cee.