Democrats are protesting Democrats later today on Capitol Hill. A group calling for more Democratic presidential debates will gather outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters to do demand more debates.
“Hundreds of protesters will rally at DNC headquarters on Wednesday afternoon to demand that DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz allow Democratic presidential candidates to debate more than 6 times. There were 26 Democratic primary debates in the 2008 campaign, including 11 before September 14th, 2007,” says an email from the organizing group #AllowDebate.
Says the group’s founder, “DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is unilaterally defying the will of Democratic voters, Presidential candidates, and the DNC’s own Vice-Chairs. … Her dictatorial suppression of free and open debate is an attack on the democratic process.”
Turns out, many Democrats have supported expanding the debate process, except Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Clinton, who are not found on this list provided by the group:
August 28 – Governor Martin O’Malley: “Four debates and only four debates – we are told, not asked – before voters in our earliest states make their decision. This sort of rigged process has never been attempted before.” [The Hill]
August 30 – Senator Bernie Sanders: “I think that [the debate restriction] is dead wrong and I have let the leadership of the Democrats know that” [The Hill]
September 8 – Former DNC Chair Howard Dean: “there’s a rule that says, if you participate in an unsanctioned debate, then you can’t participate in a sanctioned debate. That I don’t agree with. It’s not right.” [Washington Post]
September 9th – DNC Vice-Chairs Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and R.T. Rybak: “We are calling for several more debates than the six currently scheduled, and withdrawing the proposed sanctions against candidates who choose to participate in non-DNC sanctioned debates.” [New York Times]
September 11th – Martha Fuller Clark of the DNC Resolutions Committee on the debate schedule: “She did not run it by the executive committee of the DNC, she did not run it by the members of the DNC. People have been telling her that they are unhappy with this schedule, and she has been adamant about not making any changes.” [Boston Globe]
September 11th – Deb Kozikowski, Vice President of the Association of State Democratic Chairs: “[The Chair was] too busy establishing a full-fledged dictatorship at the DNC to recognize she’d gone over the top.” [Boston Globe]
