Things appear to be coming to a head at the Democratic National Committee.
Days after the first Democratic debate attracted nearly 16 million viewers to see their five candidates battle on the big stage, multiple DNC officials are in a near rebellion against chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after her handling of disputes over the debate process.
According to reports in Bloomberg and the New York Times, DNC officials are speaking out against the chairwoman and the chaos she continued to engage in with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a DNC vice chair. before the debate, saying it was an “embarrassing public spectacle.”
In interviews with both outlets, DNC vice chair R.T. Rybak took Wasserman Schultz to task, openly questioning her leadership of the party, while adding that Gabbard was right that the chairwoman should consult other members of the party.
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“In the days before and after the debate I kept my mouth shut,” Rybak told Bloomberg’s John Heilemann. “But I’ve begun to deeply question whether she has the leadership skills to get us through the election. This is not just about how many debates we have. This is one of a series of long-running events in which the chair has not shown the political judgment that is needed.”
“She presented this to us as a fait accompli as she was about to go out and announce it to the whole committee,” Rybak said. “I said to her, ‘Well, at least there’s some way you can explain why you came to that decision.’ She didn’t even do that. She gaveled people out of order without any explanation.”
Rybak, who served as mayor of Minneapolis, also said that he is “coming really close” to calling for her ouster from party leadership, and that she is putting the party in peril of losing the White House in 2016.
“There’s only one single thing that I see standing between us and a great election coming up and that’s the fact that the person who is supposed to leading us is not leading us,” Rybak said.
The former mayor’s comments echo those of Gabbard, who made her feelings known in multiple television interviews before the DNC debate on Tuesday after being disinvited from the event due to her call for more debates.
“The chairwoman said publicly that she had communicated and consulted with vice chairs and officers of the DNC prior to making her decision,” Gabbard told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell at the time. “The fact is, there was no communication. There was no consultation with the vice chairs and officers, of which I am one. So it’s unfortunate that she continues to say things that aren’t true.”
Wasserman Schultz responded to Gabbard saying that she should stop worrying about “process” and that she was taking the spotlight away from the candidates taking the stage Tuesday night.
