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Hacked
emails
overshadow
Democratic
National
Convention
By ANNE
FLAHERTY
Associated
Press
WASHINGTON
- Hacked
emails
threatened
to
overshadow
the
Democratic
Party's
upcoming
celebration
in
Philadelphia
as
progressives
expressed
disappointment
Sunday
over the
presidential
nomination
process
and
Bernie
Sanders
stepped
up
demands
that the
party's
chairwoman
step
down.
Bitterness
and
frustration
among
the more
progressive
wing
came
after
some
19,000
emails
were
published
on the
website
Wikileaks
that
suggested
the
Democratic
National
Committee
played
favorites
during
the
primary,
when
Sanders
fell
short
against
Hillary
Clinton.
In one
leaked
email, a
DNC
official
wondered
whether
Sanders'
religious
beliefs
could be
used
against
him,
questioning
whether
the
candidate
may be
an
atheist.
In
televised
interviews
Sunday,
the
Vermont
senator
said the
emails
proved
what he
knew was
true:
The DNC
planned
to
support
former
Secretary
of State
Clinton
from the
start.
"I'm not
shocked,
but I'm
disappointed"
by the
exchanges
in the
emails,
Sanders
told
ABC's
"This
Week."
Sanders
pressed
for Rep.
Debbie
Wasserman
Schultz,
D-Fla.,
to quit
as
chairwoman
immediately.
He also
suggested
that
Clinton's
choice
of
running
mate,
Virginia
Sen. Tim
Kaine,
was a
disappointment
and that
he would
have
preferred
Massachusetts
Sen.
Elizabeth
Warren,
a
favorite
of
liberals.
"His
political
views
are not
my
political
views.
He is
more
conservative
than I
am.
Would I
have
preferred
to see
somebody
like an
Elizabeth
Warren
selected
by
Secretary
Clinton?
Yes, I
would
have,"
Sanders
told
NBC's
"Meet
the
Press."
The
Clinton
team
worked
to
portray
their
party's
convention
in a
different
light
from the
just
concluded
Republican
gathering
in
Cleveland,
where
Donald
Trump
accepted
the GOP
nomination
but
party
divisions
flared
when his
chief
rival,
Texas
Sen. Ted
Cruz,
refused
to
endorse
the
billionaire
businessman.
Trump
cast
himself
as the
law-and-order
candidate
in a
nation
suffering
under
crime
and
hobbled
by
immigration,
as the
GOP
convention
stuck to
a
gloom-and-doom
theme.
Democrats
said
they
wanted
to
convey a
message
of
optimism
and
improving
the
lives of
all
Americans.
But
party
disunity
also
seems to
be a
factor
in
Philadelphia,
given
Sanders'
demands
for a
new
leader
and
general
unhappiness
among
his many
supporters
about
how the
nomination
process
unfolded.
It was
unclear
whether
Wasserman
Schultz
would
have a
speaking
role at
the
convention.
And at
least
one
Sanders'
delegate
said
there
was talk
of
protests
during
Kaine's
acceptance
speech.
Norman
Solomon,
a
delegate
who
supports
Bernie
Sanders,
says
there is
talk
among
Sanders'
delegates
of
walking
out
during
Kaine's
acceptance
speech
or
turning
their
backs as
a show
of
protest.
Solomon
said he
believes
a "vast
majority"
of
Sanders
delegates
support
these
kinds of
protests
to
express
their
dismay.
Sanders'
supporters
say they
are
concerned
that
Kaine is
not
progressive
enough.
Dan
O'Neal,
68, is a
retired
school
teacher
and
delegate
from
Arizona,
said
Wasserman
Schultz
has to
be
censured.
"We knew
they
were
stacking
the deck
against
Bernie
from the
get-go,
but this
type of
stuff
coming
out is
outrageous,"
he said.
"It
proves
our
point
that
they've
tried to
marginalize
him and
make it
as
difficult
as
possible."
Trump's
campaign
chairman,
Paul
Manafort,
agreed,
saying
Sanders'
supporters
"have a
lot to
complain
about."
"The
emails
have
proven
the
system
was
rigged
from the
start,"
Manafort
told
"Fox
News
Sunday."
Clinton's
campaign
manager,
Robby
Mook,
tried to
shift
blame
away
from DNC
officials
to
"Russian
state
actors"
who, he
said,
may have
hacked
into DNC
computers
"for the
purpose
of
helping
Donald
Trump,"
the
Republican
presidential
nominee.
How the
emails
were
stolen
hasn't
been
confirmed.
"It was
concerning
last
week
that
Donald
Trump
changed
the
Republican
platform
to
become
what
some
experts
would
regard
as
pro-Russian,"
Mook
said.
Clinton
is
within
just
days of
her
long-held
ambition
to
become
the
party's
official
presidential
nominee.
After
the DNC
released
a
slightly
trimmed
list of
superdelegates
- those
are the
party
officials
who can
back any
candidate
- it now
takes
2,382
delegates
to
formally
clinch
the
nomination.
Clinton
has
2,814
when
including
superdelegates,
according
to an
Associated
Press
count.
Sanders
has
1,893.
Sanders
has
endorsed
Clinton,
but his
delegates
are
pushing
for a
state-by-state
tally.
The
state-by-state
roll
call is
scheduled
for
Tuesday.
Also
Sunday,
Kaine
and his
wife,
Anne
Holton,
were
back at
their
longtime
church
in
Richmond,
Virginia,
a day
after he
made his
campaign
debut
with
Clinton.
Kaine, a
former
choir
member
at St.
Elizabeth
Catholic
Church,
sang a
solo
during
Communion.
He later
told
reporters
outside
the
church:
"We
needed
some
prayers
today
and we
got some
prayers,
and we
got some
support
and it
really
feels
good."
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