The Election Is 'Rigged!' Leaked Emails Suggest DC Insiders Pushed Hillary For President
Hillary Clinton is NOT the people's choice for Democratic presidential nominee! That's the fear of many critics who believe that newly leaked emails from the DNC show that they "rigged" the election in favor of the frontrunner — and at the expense of Bernie Sanders.
Over the weekend, Wikileaks released even more emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Though rumors of hackers infiltrating the DNC have been circulating for months, this has been largest trove released yet and was the catalyst for chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resignation. Wasserman Schultz was ousted after many of the emails seemed to show an anti-Bernie Sanders agenda and favoritism toward Clinton, angering Sanders supporters who now are calling the primaries "rigged," The Wall Street Journal reported.
In one email, a DNC insider said her party was "clearing a path" for Clinton to go to the White House.
The anonymous committeewoman said that the women in power in the DNC decided to favor Clinton "early on" and that they wanted to get behind Clinton "because she's a woman."
Prior to Wasserman Schultz's resignation, five of the nine elected leaders in the DNC were women.
"I haven't heard anyone say we should make Hillary undergo a trial by fire," the insider said. "To the contrary, the women in charge seem eager, more and more, to have her skate into the general election."
In addition to the hints of preferential treatment, the leaked emails exposed how high dollar donations drove the DNC's decisions. Emails suggest that the party used President Obama as a way of drawing donors in.
"The top-tier donor package for this week's Democratic National Convention required a donor to raise $1.25 million or give $467,600 since January 2015," The Washington Post reported. In return for this massive donation, a contributor would be booked in a top Philadelphia hotel and land spots at "an exclusive roundtable and campaign briefing with high-level Democratic officials," one email revealed.
Perks like this were pressed upon donors so the DNC could pay for their share of the upcoming convention.
Clinton was asked about the alleged partiality of her party in an unaired 60 Minutes clip as she sat beside running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
"In your view, any effort in the DNC to favor one candidate or another would have been improper?" CBS News anchor Scott Pelley asked.
"I don't have any information about this so I can't answer specifically," Clinton said.
The presidential candidate instead went on to say she ran her campaign "hard" and was "grateful" for the way Bernie Sanders ran his, based on "issues" and not "insults."
Kaine, who served as DNC chair from 2009-2011, revealed, "You're not going to find anybody at the DNC or the RNC or any political organization who is a complete agnostic who doesn't have an opinion about a candidate." Kaine said he didn't see any effort from the DNC to tip the nomination in favor of Clinton.
For his part, Sanders said he found the revelations "outrageous," but said it was "not a great shock."