Aides to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign are lashing out at the Democratic National Committee, suggesting the group is manipulating a spat over access to Hillary Clinton’s campaign data to sabotage Sanders.
Sanders’ former national data director, Josh Uretsky, was recommended by the Democrats’ governing body to the Sanders campaign, an unnamed Sanders aide told Yahoo Politics in comments some read as implying Uretsky was a DNC plant.
“We are being attacked for the behavior of an individual, which we ultimately fired,” the aide said. “We agree he acted improperly, but it’s just amazing to me that this…individual that actually caused this trouble in our campaign was recommended by these guys.”
The Sanders’ campaign came under fire on Dec. 18, the eve of a Democratic presidential debate, for a data controversy that caused the campaign to be temporarily banned from access to the Democrats’ “Master Voter List,” an important tool for modern national Democratic campaigns.
Sanders’ campaign was lambasted by DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Clinton campaign officials.
Wasserman Schultz has been criticized in the past for perceived favoritism toward the Clinton campaign.
Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver released a pointed statement on the controversy.
“By their action, the leadership of the Democratic National Committee is now actively attempting to undermine our campaign,” Weaver said. “Individual leaders of the DNC can support Hillary Clinton in any way they want, but they are not going to sabotage our campaign.”
