Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) was greeted with a barrage of heckles and boos on Monday morning in Philadelphia, as she tried to address Democratic party members from her own state.
The outgoing Democratic National Committee chair was repeatedly interrupted by a hostile crowd of Florida delegates. Angry attendees “stood on chairs holding up signs that said ’emails,’ ‘No!,’ and ‘Thanks for the “help,” Debbie,'” according to The Hill.
“We need to make sure we move together in a unified way,” she pleaded, as audible dissent rained down on her.
“We know the voices in this room that are standing up and being disruptive, that’s not the Florida we know,” she added. “The Florida we know is united, the Florida we know will continue to create jobs.”
Wasserman Schultz said on Sunday that she would step down as DNC chair, after Wikileaks published thousands of emails from the committee. Some revealed the supposedly-neutral body had contempt for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and his supporters.
One, for example, showed DNC Chief Financial Office Brad Marshal and CEO Amy Dacey alleging that Sanders is an atheist—and that it should be used against him in the primary. Others showed the DNC coordinating responses to Sanders’ accusations with Clinton campaign lawyer, Marc Elias. Others showed DNC officials creating narratives about Sanders’ campaign having “never had its act together.”
“This is a silly story,” Wasserman Schultz said on May 21, in response to a Sanders campaign pledge to make her resign, if elected. “He isn’t going to be president.”
DNC officials repeatedly claimed throughout the primary that the party committee was neutral.
Wasserman Schultz will remain DNC chair throughout the party’s quadrennial meeting in Philadelphia. She’s currently scheduled to play a largely ceremonial role—the gaveling and out of the convention. But even that could prove distracting, The Hill noted, after “the remarkable scene” on Monday morning.
“Wasserman Schultz has also said she will speak to delegates,” the daily paper noted. “If she does, she will almost certainly be interrupted again by her opponents, but on a much larger scale.”
According to journalist David Dayen, the DNC chair left the stage on Monday morning to a chorus of “Na-na na-na, na-na na-na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.”
Dayen also noted Monday morning that some attendees at a breakfast for the California delegation broke out into chants of “Wikileaks! Wikileaks!”
Sanders reacted Sunday to Wasserman Schultz’s impending resignation, saying she “has made the right decision for the future of the Democratic Party.” He has not altered his prior endorsement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, maintaining that progressives’ imperative at the moment should be the defeat of Donald Trump.
Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, responded by naming Wasserman Schultz as an honorary chair.
The Clinton campaign has also blamed the hack on the Russian government. Campaign manager Bobby Mook said Sunday: “experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC.”
