 "Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders")
The Democratic convention to anoint Hillary Clinton as the presidential nominee at the party's convention Monday in Philadelphia met with political tension over 20,000 leaked emails by Wikileaks that indicated Russia’s intelligence agencies involvement in support of Republican candidate, Donald Trump and ousting DNC nominee Bernie Sanders.
What was the content of the e-mails?
The e-mails seem to validate a concern Bernie Sanders had raised throughout the campaign — that the Democratic National Committee leadership favoured Hillary Clinton.
The cached emails from DNC officials exchanged between January 2015- May 2016 show that although DNC was supposed to remain neutral during campaign, there were disparaging comments made about the Sanders campaign.
The emails include several stinging denunciations of Sanders and his organisation before and after the DNC briefly shut off his campaign's access to the party's key list of likely Democratic voters. DNC officials also scoff at Sanders and his supporters and, in one instance, even question his commitment to his religion. Sanders is Jewish.
How did these emails get out?
The official source of the lead is not known, but a The New York Times' report suggests they were stolen from the DNC by Russian hackers.
Are the Russians really involved?
The metadata from the released emails suggests that the documents passed through Russian computers, and that that the national committee was breached by two Russian intelligence agencies, which were the same attackers behind previous Russian cyber-operations at the White House, The New York Times reported.
According to federal investigators and private cybersecurity firms, it appears to be operated by G.R.U. i.e. the Russian military intelligence service.
A former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden said, "Certainly Russia has become a master at manipulating information for their strategic goals: Witness the information bubble they have created for their threatening behavior in the Crimea, the Ukraine and elsewhere."
Two US intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hack could be part of a broader campaign by Russian President Vladimir Putin to push back against what he thinks is an effort by the European Union and NATO, a military alliance of European and North American democracies, to encircle and weaken Russia, Reuters reported.
One of the officials called the fear "a hangover" from Putin's service in the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency, the report added.
Also, as the word goes around that Russians would much rather prefer Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, because Trump has praised Vladimir Putin, calling him a better president than Obama, and has suggested that US might not defend NATO countries from a Russian attack.
Accusing Moscow of interfering in US presidential elections, Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said Russians hacked the party national committee's computer system and released the emails to help her Republican rival, Donald Trump.
He told CNN on Sunday that "experts" traced to "Russian state actors" the leak of emails showing that the party leadership tried to undermine the insurgent Clinton rival, Bernie Sanders.
Even Donald Trump tweeted in a sarcastic tone:
The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016
However, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told NBC News' Richard Engel "there is no proof of that whatsoever" and said "this is a diversion" pushed by the Clinton campaign.
Who was involved in the email exchanges?
Among the officials whose emails were made public are DNC spokesman Luis Miranda, national finance director Jordon Kaplan and finance chief Scott Comer, but other DNC and media figures and even some White House officials communicated with them between January 2015 and last May, Wikileaks said.
In one email, DNC President Wasserman Schultz, angered by Sanders' campaign manager chairman alleging the party was treating his campaign unfairly, called him a "damn liar."
In mid-May emails with Miranda, his deputy Mark Paustenbach questioned whether the DNC should use the voter record furore to raise questions about the Sanders campaign.
A supporter cries while listening to former Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders
The 49-year-old Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chairwoman of Democratic National Committee in a statement announced her resignation after the emails leaked by Wikileaks showed that she tended to support Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the party's presidential primaries.
Where, as head of the party, Schultz is supposed to be neutral. However, Barack Obama praised her for her leadership in DNC.
With the chairwoman out, what happens to the convention?
Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio will take over Wasserman Schultz's role as convention chairwoman. She said that she would forego that honour to avoid disruptions at the start of the convention.
"We're all Democrats and we need to act like it," began the congresswoman from Ohio, who also promised a "different kind of convention than the one we saw last week."
What is Donald Trump’s take on this scandal?
Republican candidate Donald Trump voices his opinion over a series of tweets:
Bernie Sanders totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton. All of that work, energy and money, and nothing to show for it! Waste of time.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016
Hillary was involved in the e-mail scandal because she is the only one with judgement so bad that such a thing could have happened!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016
The Democrats are in a total meltdown but the biased media will say how great they are doing! E-mails say the rigged system is alive & well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016
Crooked Hillary Clinton knew everything that her "servant" was doing at the DNC - they just got caught, that's all! They laughed at Bernie.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016
If Bernie Sanders, after seeing the just released e-mails, continues to look exhausted and done, then his legacy will never be the same.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016
What does Berny Sander and Hillary Clinton have to say?
Sanders said he would continue to support Clinton as his main goal was to defeat Trump, Republican presidential candidate and even though Sanders’ supporters are up for a fight, they still can’t deny Clinton the nomination.
"The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race," Sanders said in a statement.
As for Clinton, she said, "I look forward to campaigning with Debbie in Florida and helping her in her re-election bid--because as President, I will need fighters like Debbie in Congress who are ready on day one to get to work for the American people."
She added that Schultz has agreed to serve as honorary chair of her campaign's 50-state programme to gain ground and elect Democrats in every part of the country, and will continue to serve as a surrogate for her campaign nationally.
However, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told NBC News' Richard Engel "there is no proof of that whatsoever" and said "this is a diversion" pushed by the Clinton campaign.
