Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz responded to the Bernie Sanders campaign’s charge that she has been “throwing shade” at him with some slang of her own.
“My response to that is hashtag SMH,” Wasserman Schultz said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Wednesday afternoon — an Internet abbreviation for the term “shaking my head.”
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said earlier Wednesday that the DNC chairwoman has been “throwing shade” at Sanders since the beginning of the campaign, and that despite other DNC members treating both candidates fairly, “the exception” has been Wasserman Schultz favoring Hillary Clinton.
Wasserman Schultz told Blitzer she wouldn’t allow this “malarkey” to distract her from her main objective: ensuring the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, doesn’t win the general election in November.
When asked by Blitzer if it’s true that Wasserman Schultz hasn’t spoken to Sanders in months, she refuted the claim, and said her conversation with the Vermont senator 10 days ago went “just fine”.
The DNC chair called her position a “bumpy ride,” and said, “If I have to absorb some of these body blows in order for the candidates to stay above the fray and for my colleagues on the ground in the state parties to keep their head down and get the job done, so be it.”
Wasserman Schultz emphasized moving the Democratic Party forward and effectively managing the primary. “I understand people want to fan the flames and distract from our task at hand. That plays right into the Republicans’ hands.”
“I think [this Democratic primary] has been an absolute positive for our party,” Wasserman Schultz said.
