In an effort to appease enraged Bernie Sanders supporters and mend the widening rift within the party, three top Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials resigned on Tuesday after Wikileaks published over 19,000 hacked emails, including correspondences between party officials denouncing Sanders’ candidacy. Following the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic convention last week exhibited both a lack of unity and transparency within the party.
After months of accusing DNC officials of actively working against his presidential campaign, Sen. Bernie Sanders was proven right last month when Wikileaks released more than 19,000 internal DNC emails allegedly hacked by the Russian government. According to the leaked emails, several top officials, including the DNC Chairwoman, CEO, CFO, and Communications Director, blatantly conspired to prevent Sanders from becoming the party’s presidential nominee.
Although DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned after a crowd booed her during a pre-convention speech in Philadelphia last week, many Sanders supporters continued to display ire and discontent throughout the convention. In addition to sabotaging Sanders’ campaign, many prominent Democrats refused to even acknowledge the email scandal during the convention.
According to a statement from the DNC on Tuesday, CEO Amy Dacey, Chief Finance Officer Brad Marshall, and Communications Director Luis Miranda have also resigned from their positions. Despite the fact that Dacey rarely appeared in the leaked emails, she was caught supporting Marshall’s attacks on Sanders’ religious beliefs. Marshall later apologized for writing the controversial emails.
Before resigning as DNC Chairwoman, Schultz had written an email to other officials stating, “He isn’t going to be president.”
Immediately after Dacey’s resignation was announced on Tuesday, the former CEO was hired by Squared Communications, a Democratic consulting firm based in Washington. In a recent statement, Michael Meehan, founder and CEO of Squared Communications, wrote, “As one of the top campaign strategists in our party, and with our experiences together on presidential, Senate and congressional campaigns, Amy will help our firm’s clients navigate this and future election cycles.”
As the FBI and NSA continue to investigate the Russian government’s possible involvement in the email hack, the DNC resignations appear to be too little and too late for many of Sanders’ supporters. While claiming to represent the ideals of democracy, these DNC officials betrayed their own party by ignoring the voices of millions of Americans.
Instead of giving Sanders a fair shot, Schultz, Dacey, Marshall, and Miranda made a mockery of the democratic process while disillusioning millions of new voters. Although Vladimir Putin has been accused of influencing the elections in order to get his ardent supporter, Donald Trump, elected, these former DNC officials have done more to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign than Putin could ever have imagined.
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