The argument that needs to be made to claim Democratic National Committee bias against Bernie Sanders: Daily Bullshit, July 23, 2016

Bernie Sanders

I’m as satisfied as anyone that the Democratic National Committee was biased against Bernie Sanders and tilted the primary campaign in Hillary Clinton’s favor.^[1] But while Zaid Jilani’s article is given a headline that suggests that bias, actual support for this claim in the article is muddied at best. There is one message in which DNC staffer Mark Paustenbach pitches a story line that the Sanders campaign didn’t have its act together and another in which he attempts to make more of alleged violence that apparently didn’t actually happen at the Nevada convention than there was (a sentiment apparently shared by Debbie Wasserman Schultz). But I don’t expect anyone to react kindly to being accused of bias—and that’s really what many of these messages are about.^[2]

A better argument would draw upon the two aforementioned Paustenbach emails^[3] and on DNC Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall’s suggestion to question Sanders’ religion^[4] (for which Marshall has apologized^[5]) as evidence of a climate of opposition to Sanders within the DNC. We can easily imagine that these are the tip of the iceberg. It would also help to supply evidence refuting Schultz’s claim (Update, July 24, 2016: It turns out Politifact rated this claim false on January 20, 2016^[6]) that debates scheduled on weekends were in fact the “highest watched debates in 3 election cycles” and that they were a success.^[7]

Kristen East, “Top DNC staffer apologizes for email on Sanders’ religion,” Politico, July 23, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/top-dnc-staffer-apologizes-for-email-on-sanders-religion-226072

Zaid Jilani, “DNC Staffers Mocked the Bernie Sanders Campaign, Leaked Emails Show,” Intercept, July 22, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/07/22/dnc-staffers-mocked-the-bernie-sanders-campaign-leaked-emails-show/

1. ^[1]Ryan Cooper, “Hillary Clinton and the awful risk of winning ugly,” Week, December 21, 2015, http://theweek.com/articles/595141/hillary-clinton-awful-risk-winning-ugly; Christian Drake, “New Information Shows DNC Violated Its Own Rules When It Shut Down Sanders Campaign Data Access,” Addicting Info, December 19, 2015, http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/19/new-information-shows-dnc-violated-its-own-rules-when-it-shut-down-sanders-campaign-data-access/; Nick Gass, “Clinton press secretary: Superdelegates can help Clinton clinch nomination by early June,” Politico, April 14, 2016, http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/hillary-clinton-needs-superdelegates-221943; Lauren McCauley, “Thumb on the Scale? DNC Backs Off Bernie But Questions of Neutrality Linger,” Common Dreams, December 19, 2015, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/19/thumb-scale-dnc-backs-bernie-questions-neutrality-linger; William Rivers Pitt, “Naked Politics: Sanders, Clinton and How to Win When You’re Losing,” Truthout, May 18, 2016, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/36090-naked-politics-sanders-clinton-and-how-to-win-when-you-re-losing; Michael Sainato, “The Countless Failings of the DNC,” Observer, March 27, 2016, http://observer.com/2016/03/the-countless-failings-of-the-dnc/; Elliot Smilowitz and Joe Uchill, “Leaked DNC emails reveal secret plans to take on Sanders,” Hill, July 22, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288900-leaked-dnc-emails-reveal-secret-plans-to-take-on-sanders; Daniel Strauss, “Bernie’s backers rage against Democratic machine,” Politico, April 13, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/bernie-sanders-supporters-democrats-221842; Caitlin Yilek, “Ex-Obama adviser: DNC ‘putting finger on scale’ for Hillary,” Hill, December 18, 2015, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/263792-ex-obama-adviser-on-sanders-scandal-dnc-putting-finger-on↩
2. ^[2]Zaid Jilani, “DNC Staffers Mocked the Bernie Sanders Campaign, Leaked Emails Show,” Intercept, July 22, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/07/22/dnc-staffers-mocked-the-bernie-sanders-campaign-leaked-emails-show/↩
3. ^[3]Zaid Jilani, “DNC Staffers Mocked the Bernie Sanders Campaign, Leaked Emails Show,” Intercept, July 22, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/07/22/dnc-staffers-mocked-the-bernie-sanders-campaign-leaked-emails-show/↩
4. ^[4]Elliot Smilowitz and Joe Uchill, “Leaked DNC emails reveal secret plans to take on Sanders,” Hill, July 22, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288900-leaked-dnc-emails-reveal-secret-plans-to-take-on-sanders↩
5. ^[5]Kristen East, “Top DNC staffer apologizes for email on Sanders’ religion,” Politico, July 23, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/top-dnc-staffer-apologizes-for-email-on-sanders-religion-226072↩
6. ^[6]Amy Sherman, “Democratic debates set to ‘maximize’ exposure, Wasserman Schultz claims, but evidence is dubious,” Politifact, January 20, 2016, http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/jan/20/debbie-wasserman-schultz/democratic-debates-maximize-exposure-debbie-wasser/↩
7. ^[7]Debbie Wasserman Schultz, quoted in Zaid Jilani, “DNC Staffers Mocked the Bernie Sanders Campaign, Leaked Emails Show,” Intercept, July 22, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/07/22/dnc-staffers-mocked-the-bernie-sanders-campaign-leaked-emails-show/↩