The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday brushed off the suggestion from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign that rival Hillary Clinton may have skirted campaign finance rules through her joint fundraising account with the DNC.
“Both candidates have a joint fundraising agreement that is exactly like the joint fundraising agreements that we’ve had with our previous candidates for president,” DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in an appearance on Fox Business Network. “There is absolutely nothing different in the way that we have spent money and raised money with Secretary Clinton.”
Brad C. Deutsch, counsel to Sanders’ campaign, wrote Monday in an open letter to Schultz that the campaign had “extremely serious concerns” about the Hillary Victory Fund, a pool of money jointly fundraised by the DNC and Clinton’s campaign. Deutsch alleged that Clinton had inappropriately used the money solely for the purposes of her own campaign, with none of the funds going to benefit the party itself.
Sanders’ own account with the DNC was characterized in a February Washington Post report as not yet active. Wasserman Schultz seemed to echo that description in her interview Wednesday.
“Senator Sanders has chosen not to exercise the use of his joint fundraising agreement, but we have absolutely no violations and we are running the joint victory fund with the Clinton campaign exactly according to the way we are supposed to,” she said.
Wasserman Schultz, who hadn’t previously responded to the letter, said that her response on Fox Business should be considered her reply to the Sanders campaign.
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