Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has moved to oust two high-profile Democrats from their posts as chairmen of important committees at the national party convention.
Sanders dubbed Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and former Mass. Rep. Barney Frank “attack surrogates” for Hillary Clinton who should therefore be disqualified from their respective positions as co-chairs of the standing platform committee and standing rules committee.
“Their criticisms of Senator Sanders have gone beyond dispassionate ideological disagreement and exposed a deeper professional, political and personal hostility toward the senator and his campaign,” Brad Deutsch, Sanders’ campaign lawyer, wrote in a Friday letter to the Democratic National Committee, previously obtained by Politico. “The Chairs therefore cannot be relied upon to perform their convention duties fairly and capably while laboring under such deeply held bias.”
If Sanders succeeds in deposing these chairs, it will be a remarkable testament to his insurgent campaign’s newfound clout in the Democratic Party, not least because of his choice of targets. Frank is a hero of the progressive movement — the first openly-gay person to win a congressional race and an architect of the Dodd-Frank bill tightening regulations on the banking industry following the 2008 financial crisis.
DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz might be forced to agree, however. Sanders’ team has already suggested she should lose her job as the head of the DNC, and his campaign is threatening a fight on the convention floor if Franks and Malloy stay on.
“If this committee is unable to provide its advice or assistance … the campaign will seek resolution of these issues by presenting its objections in motions as the first items of business at the initial meetings of the Standing Platform and Rules Committees and, to the extent necessary, will request the drafting and adoption of minority reports from both standing Committees for presentation to the floor of the full convention,” Deutsch wrote.
The DNC rejected his demand to strip the two party officials of their posts, writing “we are compelled to dismiss it” in a letter to Sanders’ campaign.
