On Friday, Wikileaks released 20,000 e-mails from the top of the Democratic National Committee that purportedly show the party working against Senator Bernie Sanders and his election campaign.
The leak came hours before the party's presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton announced Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate for the presidential elections. The party had been accused of favouring throughout the campaign and attempting to sideline Sanders.
In one of the many email released, the party's national press secretary Mark Paustenchbach writes to Communication Director Luis Miranda and is seen trying to shape a negative 'Bernie narrative' during his campaign.
"Wondering if there’s a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was "a mess."
Specifically, DWS had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they’d either ignored or forgotten to something critical."
In another email, DNC's CFO Brad Marshall is seen discussing Sander's religious beliefs.
One of the biggest revelations from these email is that the DNC was coordinating with reporters to put out stories about Bernie Sanders.
Business Insider reports that Politico's Kenneth Vogel sent an advanced copy of his story to Paustenbach with the subject line reading: "per agreement ... any thoughts appreciated."Paustenbach with the subject line reading: "per agreement ... any thoughts appreciated."
In a mail to Miranda, Paustenbach wrote, "Vogel gave me his story ahead of time/before it goes to his editors as long as I didn't share it," adding, "Let me know if you see anything that's missing and I'll push back."
In another instance, the emails reveal that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was angry at being criticised by MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. According to Salon's report, Scultz asked for an apology and told Chuck Todd at the network "this must stop". Schultz also took the matter up with the network's head.
Schultz served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008 and has been criticised for her bias against Sanders, the report says.
The emails show several instances where the DNC went out of its way to sabotage Sanders' campaign.
The revelations will dominate news and be a big talking point as the party is days away from its national convention in Philadelphia from July 25-28 where Clinton will be formally announced as the presidential nominee.
