The Democratic National Convention’s email scandal and chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's subsequent resignation has cast a shadow over the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. What was supposed to be a week of party unity in support of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been undercut by Republicans and Sanders supporters calling the Democratic primary rigged.
“I love Debbie. I’ve known her for a long time and I worked well with her when we did the convention in 2012, but we have an obligation to our party. We have to move past this as quickly as we can and the best way to do that is to move past it,” said 2012 Democratic National Convention CEO Steve Kerrigan.”
At a meeting with supporters in Philadelphia this afternoon, Sanders continued to endorse Clinton saying, “We have got to elect Hillary Clinton.” His comments were met with jeers and boos from the crowd. “What’s interesting is Bernie is probably the most prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton in the Bernie camp, and yet he can’t bring over all of his supporters to his way of thinking,” said Kerrigan.
Despite the negative coverage, Kerrigan believes that the convention will still be a positive moment for the party, and Democrats will come together to defeat Trump in November. “The feeling in town is that there is a lot of energy here and there’s a lot of disappointed Bernie people for sure, but what’s most important and what Senator Sanders is telling his supporters is, we have to focus on winning in November.”
Steve Kerrigan is the President and Co-Founder of Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, and the former CEO of the DNC. You can listen to his interview with Boston Public Radio above.
