Democratic infighting over the party’s presidential primary process is beginning to echo the clash during the 2016 campaign.
A list revealed over the weekend showed Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez’s nominations for the standing committees at this year’s convention, which sparked familiar outrage from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s camp.
“The DNC should be ashamed of itself, because it really is a slap in the face to folks who were asking for reform, and if the DNC believes that it’s going to get away in 2020 with what it did in 2016, it has another thing coming,” Nina Turner, the national co-chairwoman of the Sanders campaign, said about the list during a Monday interview with Status Coup.
The list shows dozens of nominations of officials who would organize this year’s convention and oversee the creation of the party’s platform, and generated outrage in some liberal circles. Among those on the list is former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, who was nominated to the Rules Committee. Former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, a critic of Sanders, was nominated to be co-chairman of the Rules Committee.
In 2016, the Sanders campaign wrote a letter calling for Frank and then-Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy to be removed from their roles as heads of the Rules Committee and Platform Committee, respectively, calling the liberal figures “aggressive attack surrogates” for Clinton, who went on to win the party’s nomination. DNC officials rejected the plea.
Turner, a former Ohio state senator who dropped her support for Clinton to become a surrogate for Sanders in the 2016 contest, said the list is indicative of yet another unfair process.
“It’s very disappointing to see Chairman Perez build a list of this magnitude. It also shows a lack of understanding about what the grassroots asked for post the 2016 election. It is an embarrassment,” Turner said.
The organization’s Executive Committee voted on Saturday to appoint Perez’s nominations, including some Sanders supporters, and they only make up a small portion of the total number of people who will serve on each committee.
“Our rules require the DNC chair to make a small fraction of appointments to three standing committees for the convention, and these appointments reflect the rich diversity of our party,” DNC national press secretary Brandon Gassaway said, according to the Hill.
“The remaining appointments will be made based on each state’s election results. 2016 presidential preference was not considered for this convention’s appointments. We are grateful for these appointees’ commitment to the party and look forward to an energized convention where we will nominate the next president of the United States,” Gassaway said.
Turner’s interview was posted online one week before the Iowa caucuses, the first presidential nominating contest in the country. Sanders, 78, leads the field in Iowa with 25% support, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with 22%.
After mounting a surprisingly competitive campaign against Clinton in the 2016 primary contest, Sanders endorsed the former secretary of state right before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, but their effort to display unity after months of clashing didn’t stop Sanders-backing delegates from walking out of Clinton’s acceptance speech in protest of a system they viewed as being rigged against the senator. Clinton lost to President Trump in the general election.
In the years that followed, the DNC adopted major reforms that included reducing the outsize influence of unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, which Sanders supporters asserted gave Clinton an unfair advantage.
The former nominee has accused Sanders of hurting her presidential candidacy by delaying his endorsement of her in 2016 and this month sided with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a spat with Sanders after the Vermont senator was accused of saying during a 2018 meeting with Warren that a woman could not be president, which Sanders denied. Clinton said the alleged remark is “part of a pattern.”
In a four-part documentary series, which premieres in March on Hulu, Clinton argued that “nobody likes” Sanders and, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, wouldn’t say whether she would back him if he wins the 2020 primary.
Sanders brushed off the insults, saying, “Together, we are going to go forward and defeat the most dangerous president in American history.” Clinton later said, “I will do whatever I can to support our nominee.”
This year’s Democratic National Convention, where the party will pick its presidential and vice presidential nominees, is set for July 13 to 16 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
