Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Met With Jeers at Pre-Convention Breakfast
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It keeps getting worse for Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The outgoing chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, who announced her resignation on Sunday amid the revelation of committee emails suggesting an institutional preference for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, showed up on Monday morning to address a breakfast meeting of Florida delegates.
With her speaking slots and officiating duties all but scrapped during the convention, it was to be one of the embattled Florida congresswoman’s few public appearances.
And it was a disaster.
Protesters, wearing Sanders T-shirts and buttons, stood and held signs that read “E-MAILS” and “We Don’t Want Cheaters In Our Party Anyway” and “NO!” and “Division” and “Thanks for the ‘Help’ Debbie.” They booed, loudly, and screamed “fair elections” as Ms. Wasserman Schultz took the lectern and said: “It is so wonderful to be able to be here with my home state. All right everybody now, settle down. Everybody settle down, please.”
Her supporters, in Debbie Wasserman Schultz T-shirts, tried to drown out the protesters by chanting “Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.” They couldn’t.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz sought to inject a more somber note into the room by expressing condolences for the victims of a deadly shooting in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday night. The Sanders supporters weren’t having it. She made the case for gun control. But it was hard to hear her.
She tried to make light of the protest by saying, “I can see there’s a little bit of interest in my being here, and I can appreciate that interest,” but the booing continued unabated.
It didn’t help when she said that the interest was a testament to Florida’s importance as a battleground state and “we’ll make sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States.”
As television cameras encircled the protesters, and Florida officials on the dais exchanged stunned looks, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, once considered a potential leader in the party, had a pained look on her face.
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