Just days before the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention, leaked emails seem to indicate the DNC’s disdain for Bernie Sanders was more than rhetorical.
According to The Hill, hacker Gucifer 2.0 passed a ton of emails 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.
Most concerning is an email that appears to suggest using Sanders’ religion against him. The email in question was sent in May from DNC CFO, Brad Marshall:
From:MARSHALL@dnc.orgTo: MirandaL@dnc.org, PaustenbachM@dnc.org, DaceyA@dnc.org Date: 2016-05-05 03:31Subject: No shitIt 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.
Marshal responded saying it couldn’t have possible been Sanders he was referring to.
[UPDATE at 1:03 p.m. ET: Marshall emails to say “I do not recall this. I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate.” We have asked him who that surrogate could possibly be.]And although Sanders is not mentioned by name, he was the only Jewish candidate from either party — an apparent weakness that Marshall believed the party could exploit in favor of Hillary Clinton.It is also unclear why the Democratic National Committee, which isn’t supposed to favor one Democratic candidate over another until they receive a nomination, would have attempted to subvert the Sanders campaign on the grounds that “he is an atheist.”
The Sanders campaign long claimed blatant favoritism towards Hillary’s campaign; claims gaining credibility with this latest batch of leaked emails.
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