Ousted DNC Chair: ‘Sometimes You Just Have To Take One For The Team’

DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., arrives for a Florida delegation breakfast, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Philadelphia, during the first day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
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In her first public speech since she announced her resignation as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said that “sometimes you just have to take one for the team.”

“This has been a difficult week, there’s no question about it,” Wasserman Schultz said at a Thursday reception hosted by the National Jewish Democratic Council, according to The Hill.

“It has been a remarkable team effort, and you know sometimes you just have to take one for the team, and that’s OK, it’s OK,” she went on.

Emails hacked from the DNC’s servers and released by WikiLeaks just before the start of the convention indicated that Wasserman Schultz and other top committee officials had their thumbs on the scale for Hillary Clinton. The Florida congresswoman announced she would step down in response to the leaks after the convention ended on Thursday, but after she was shouted down by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at a Monday breakfast with the Florida delegation, she removed herself fully from the convention proceedings.

U.S. officials have said that Russian intelligence organizations were likely behind the hacks. Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that Russia or “any other country or person” also leak emails taken from Clinton’s personal server if they had them, sending off alarm bells among U.S. security experts and politicians who said his comments were an invitation to commit cyberattacks against a presidential candidate.

Trump has since said he was being “sarcastic,” but Wasserman Schultz told the National Jewish Democratic Council that his comments were irresponsible.

“I can personally attest to how not funny it is,” she said, according to The Hill. “We were hacked by Russian espionage organizations, and for a presidential candidate to encourage that to happen again, I mean, it’s treasonous, it’s seditious, it’s unacceptable.”

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Notable Replies

  1. And sometimes you end up scoring points for the wrong team.

  2. She was terrible and needed to go years ago. I hope she loses her seat. She is EXACTLY the type of democrat that shouldn’t be in office let alone a leadership position.

  3. I supported bernie and I still do which is why I am voting for Hillary.
    Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her stupidity has made it extremely hard to persuade hard core bernie supporters to follow Clinton. Combined with the daily lies about Mrs Clinton and it is really hard to convince the 18-30 crowd that Mrs Clinton is not a corrupt money grubbing wall street neo con.
    Some blame to the press including TPM for claiming all of Bernie supporters were young ignorant students.
    When you attacked bernie supporters you became a distrusted news source for a lot of bernie supporters.

  4. She resigned – what more do you want – blood? Why do we always need a scapegoat – and why is that usually a woman? The attacks on her are proxy attacks on HRC. The convention was well planned and executed. If she had a hand in making that happen, I am grateful to her.

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