Clinton team planned to oust DNC chair last year — WikiLeaks
Hacked memo discusses ousting or weakening Debbie Wasserman Schultz long before her resignation on eve of party convention
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WASHINGTON — The latest WikiLeaks release reveals that the Clinton campaign looked to neuter the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee as far back as December.
Among the options discussed in the hacked campaign documents was forcing the chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, out of office after the party’s convention.
Other options outlined in a memo by top campaign aide Heather Stone would have kept Wasserman Schultz in place, but in a weakened capacity.
The memo urged “systemic shifts at the DNC leadership level” to help Hillary Clinton win the presidency.
WikiLeaks has been releasing thousands of hacked emails from campaign chairman John Podesta.
Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation in June just before the convention after an earlier WikiLeaks hack of party emails showed party officials had favored Clinton over challenger Bernie Sanders, after they had pledged neutrality.
Sanders said in a statement after her resignation that Democrats needed new leadership “that will open the doors of the party and welcome in working people and young people.”
Wasserman Schultz’s swift ouster underscored party leaders’ desire to avoid convention confrontations with Sanders’s loyal supporters. The chairwoman had been a lightning rod for criticism throughout the presidential campaign, with Sanders repeatedly accusing the DNC of backing Clinton.
Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida congresswoman and standard-bearer for Jewish Democrats, who once said she voted as “a Jewish mother,” began serving as chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2011.
The Times of Israel Community.