Imagine how different politics would have been if Wikileaks had been doing this all along!
20,000 Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails leaked to Wikileaks reveal a party that is hopelessly biased, riven by scandal, and excels at incompetence.
Here’s their scandalous “Top 10:”
#10 The DNC Trash Talk Their Own Donors
One of the DNC’s primary functions is to fundraise for the Democratic Party. The party heavily relies on donations, so you might think they’d be grateful to their funders. No such luck.
One email exchange refers to major Florida donor Stephen Bittel’s seat at a DNC fundraiser. DNC national finance director Jordan Kaplan angrily declares, “He doesn’t sit next to POTUS!” His deputy, Alexandra Shapiro, responds that “Bittel will be sitting in the sh—iest corner I can find.” A separate email referred to several major DNC donors as “clowns.”
In another email, Shapiro unfavorably compared New York philanthropist Philip Munger to Maryland ophthalmologist Sreedhar Potarazu. She complained that Munger had “only” given $100,600 over the years, compared to the Potarazu family’s $332,250.
#9 The DNC Is Incompetent At Handling Donor Information
Most people giving big money to a party like to be assured their details will be kept private. The DNC failed spectacularly at this. Staffers emailed donors’ names, credit card numbers, contact information, and social security numbers. If this information were to be hacked—as it was—it could result in a field day for identity thieves.
Some of the screw-ups were even dumber. One staffer emailed an image of a $150,000 check. As Vox.com explains: “Emailing checks like this is a bad idea because America’s awful check payment network allows anyone to withdraw money from anyone else’s account with only the routing information printed on every check.” Thanks to the email leak, that information is now on the Internet for anyone to see.
#8 Bias Against Bernie Sanders
The DNC is required by its own guidelines to be neutral during presidential primaries. The emails show it failed. During the primary campaign fight between Hillary and Bernie Sanders, the DNC consistently tried to undermine Senator Sanders.
On May 21, DNC press secretary Mark Paustenbach and communications director Luis Miranda exchanged emails about creating a media narrative suggesting Sanders’s campaign was a mess. In another May email, Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed Bernie Sanders “isn’t going to be president.” In April, she wrote he had “no understanding of” the Democratic Party.
#7 Questioning Senator Sanders’s Religion
The dirtiest part of the DNC campaign against Sanders involved his religion. An early May email written by DNC CFO Brad Marshall floats a plan to scupper Sanders’s campaign by questioning his beliefs.
The email reads: “It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”
This is flagrantly unethical. It shouldn’t matter if Sanders is an atheist. Nor should his Jewish heritage matter. More to the point, the DNC’s own rules mean they shouldn’t have been targeting Sanders at all during the primary process.
For his part, Marshall denies the email is about Sanders. It’s difficult to see who else it could refer to.
#6 Dodgy Journalistic Ethics
Journalists typically don’t email advance copies of stories to the people they’re writing them about. To do so could be seen as breaching journalistic ethics. The leaked emails suggest the DNC encouraged at least one prominent journalist to do this.
An email from Politico’s Kenneth Vogel to the DNC has been uncovered, titled “per agreement . . . Any thoughts appreciated.” A major story he wrote in April is attached. In a separate email to the DNC communications director, DNC press secretary Mark Paustenbach confirms, “Vogel gave me his story ahead of time . . . ” He adds, “Let me know if you see anything that’s missing and I’ll push back.”
Vogel eventually published his story with no significant edits, but his feeling compelled to send it to the DNC at all is worrying.
Video Break: Check out what Foxnews Sunday had to say about the matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3JlU8bdric&spfreload=10
Continue Reading Items 1-5 At Listverse