Former Obama White House communications director Jen Psaki said Sunday Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s assertion that the Democratic Party’s 2016 primary was rigged is motivated by Warren’s own presidential aspirations.
“The reality here though is that when you have Sen. Elizabeth Warren go out and say ‘this is rigged,’ we should all remember she’s going to run for president in 2020,” Psaki told CNN. “She wants Bernie Sanders supporters. There’s political motivation there too.”
Warren earlier said the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was tipped in favor of the former secretary of state after a financing and operations deal was made between the Democratic National Committee and her campaign, as detailed in ex-interim DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile’s forthcoming book.
Psaki acknowledged there was institutional bias within the DNC for the establishment candidate.
“I think there’s well documented bias on a staff level,” Psaki said. “Debbie Wasserman Schultz was fired as a result. We’ve known that for over a year.”
But Psaki added her focus was party-building efforts, such as fundraising.
“My priority as a Democrat is that we need to talk about what we’re going to do moving forward,” Psaki continued. “Right now no one is focussing on the division in the party because they’re focussed on the circus on the other side.”
