Sanders' Top Aide Says Heads Should Roll for What Leaked DNC Emails Show

Party unity?”Everybody is disappointed that much of what we felt was happening at the DNC was in fact happening, that you had in this case a clear example of the DNC taking sides and looking to place negative information into the political process.”
—Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager

Amid a batch of leaked emails showing how Democratic National Committee operatives put their “fingers on the scale” during the primary season, with the chair of the party in “quarantine,” with the progressive base in an uproar over Hillary Clinton’s VP choice, and as Bernie Sanders’ top aide calls for heads to roll—the idea of a party unified going into this week’s convention seems on Sunday a quaint notion.

In response to Friday’s leak of internal DNC emails showing party officials determined to undermine the Bernie Sanders campaign, Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the party—including DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz—should be made to answer for that conduct.

“Someone does have to be held accountable,” Weaver told ABC News during an interview on Saturday. “We spent 48 hours of public attention worrying about who in the [Donald] Trump campaign was going to be held responsible for the fact that some lines of Mrs. Obama’s speech were taken by Mrs. Trump. Someone in the DNC needs to be held at least as accountable as the Trump campaign.”

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Weaver said Schultz, accused throughout the campaign of betraying a neutral role by operating on behalf of Hillary Clinton campaign, deserves specific scrutiny – especially as the contents of the leaked emails “reinforce” that the party had put “its fingers on the scale” during the hard fought primary process.

“Everybody is disappointed that much of what we felt was happening at the DNC was in fact happening, that you had in this case a clear example of the DNC taking sides and looking to place negative information into the political process,” Weaver said.