PHILADELPHIA, July 25 (UPI) — Outgoing outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz drew jeers as she spoke to her Florida delegation at a breakfast Monday morning.
Audience members with Bernie Sanders shirts started shouting “shame” as she {link:began speaking at the Weston. “http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/chaos-erupts-as-wasserman-schultz-speaks-to-florida-delegates-226113″ target=”_blank”} Some held signs that said “EMAILS” and “Thanks for the ‘Help’ Debbie.”
They were protesting leaked DNC emails that suggest Wasserman Schultz’s staff favored Hilly Clinton over Sanders during the presidential primary. The FBI has launched a probe into the hacking of the DNC’s emails, the bureau announced Monday.
“So I can see that’s little bit of interest in my being here and I appreciate that interest,” Wasserman Schultz said amid the boos. “And a little bit of interest from the press.”
It’s her role as the DNC party chief — a position she said she will leave after the convention — that has drawn anger from people in her state of Florida.
Chris Riker, a pro-Sanders delegate from Miami, said all delegates received an email that Wasserman Schultz would be speaking Monday.
“Honestly it’s their fault that this happened. There is absolutely no reason that a day after rightfully resigning in disgrace with the quote ‘Bernie Sanders will not be president’ leaked from an email that she should be addressing the delegates,” Riker said. “It’s bad for the party, it looks biased and quite frankly it looks tone-deaf.”
“I will literally boo anytime she’s involved in the convention because she shouldn’t be involved,” Riker added.
Wasserman Schultz also had supporters at the breakfast.
Florida state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, wearing a “Debbie for Congress” shirt, called the Sanders supporters “rude, disruptive and obnoxious.”
“They’re not real Democrats,” Sobel said. “They should have stopped screaming and let her speak.
Wasserman Schultz is scheduled to gavel in the convention later Monday but won’t address the convention.
Although she is leaving her DNC post, Clinton says she will serve as honorary chair of her campaign’s “50-state program to gain ground and elect Democrats in every part of the country, and will continue to serve as a surrogate for my campaign nationally, in Florida, and in other key states.”
Florida has 29 Electoral College delegates, which President Barack Obama carried in 2008 and 2012.
“We are the state that will deliver the White House to make sure that we can continue to make the progress that we have been able to make under Barack Obama for the last eight years,” said Wasserman Schultz.
She was drowned out by cheers and boos from the crowd.
Wasserman Schultz concluded her remarks, saying, “You will see me every day until Nov. 8 on the campaign trail.”
As she was escorted off stage by police, protesters sang, “Na na na na, hey hey hey, good-bye.”
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