This has not been a good week for Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
On Thursday, Politico reported that prominent marijuana advocates were trashing Schultz’s tentative plans to run for Senate, should Marco Rubio vacate a seat. Schultz opposed Florida’s narrowly-failed marijuana initiative last year, and the wrath of the pro-marijuana camp was swift.
Now Politico has obtained emails that appear to show Wasserman Schultz’s office offering to switch her position and back medical marijuana if powerful Florida donor John Morgan, one of Schultz’s noisiest opponents, would simmer down and stop bad-mouthing her to the press.
That didn’t turn out well either. “No,” Morgan replied to Schultz’s go-between. “She is a bully. I beat bullies up for a living.”
Morgan then forwarded the emails to Politico, saying he wanted to out Wasserman Schultz’s office for being “thin-skinned.” Previously he has called Schultz “despised” in Democratic circles, “an irritant,” and “irrelevant.”
Here’s Politico’s timeline of how the offer went down, shortly after they had reached out to Wasserman Schultz’s office for comment on their earlier story:
Pollara, who refused to comment, detailed the offer in an email to Morgan a few hours later, the donor said, with the subject line: “DWS.”
“In a tizzy over this politico story. Saying she might be willing to support new amendment. Any chance you’ll retract your statement,” Pollara wrote.
Morgan responded about two hours later in his email calling her a “bully.”
Wasserman Schultz has since denied that any of this took place. She told a local paper the story was “outrageous” and “false,” and said there were no such emails. Politico is sticking by its story, saying they have both text messages and emails that confirm her office at least knew some details of the offer. After Pollara sent the email to Morgan, he texted Wasserman Schultz political adviser, Jason O’Malley, and O’Malley replied “thanks.”
He later forwarded O’Malley Morgan’s terse response, and then texted, “Tried. Failed.”
O’Malley responded, “thanks.”
Later on Pollara texted again, saying “Dude. I know it wasn’t your call but I told you no good come from me reaching out to morgan yesterday. I’m sorry man. You guys need to fire your press person though.”
“Why she would go out and lie or cover up when there’s a chain of records is beyond me,” Morgan told Politico.
