DNC Suspends Bernie Sanders Staffer, Crippling His Campaign – This Is Some Jerry Springer Shit

Written by Rika Christensen on December 18, 2015

The Democratic National Committee has dealt a major blow to Bernie Sanders’ campaign after a data glitch allowed the campaign to access some of Hillary Clinton’s campaign data. One of Bernie’s staffers did so, and was immediately fired for it. It was Sanders’ campaign itself that alerted the DNC to the security problem, and they suspended his access to their master voter file in response.

This really looks like an ambush. Suspending him from the master voter file prevents his campaign from being able to reach out to voters in ways like knocking on doors and making phone calls, which is stuff all campaigns do. Seeing as how Sanders’ campaign has already performed the necessary actions, there was really no reason to do this.

It could appear to be sabotage. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC’s chair, has long been under fire for attempting to rig things in Hillary’s favor. Hillary is the presumptive nominee without any machinations like that, and yet, things like limiting the number of officially sanctioned debates to six, barring candidates that appear in unofficial debates from participating, and scheduling debates to coincide with major events like NCAA football games, paint a grim picture.

The vendor who runs the DNC’s voter file program keeps screwing up. Michael Briggs, a communications aide for Bernie’s campaign, said in a statement:

“On more than one occasion, the vendor has dropped the firewall between the data of different Democratic campaigns. Our campaign months ago alerted the DNC to the fact that campaign data was being made available to other campaigns. At that time our campaign did not run to the media, relying instead on assurances from the vendor.”

So others have had access, and nothing’s been done. It’s not known if others made use of that access, but it appears it has happened before (the vendor actually claims that this is an isolated incident).

However, Sanders’ campaign accidentally gets access, one staffer misuses it, gets fired, the campaign reports the problem, and gets suspended indefinitely. Why? There is no reason for this, unless the DNC is really that scared that Bernie will win the primary.

The Republican National Committee is terrified of a Trump or Cruz nomination, and for good reason. Neither of those two has the experience—or really, the wherewithal—to be president. They’re both nuts. They’ll run the country into the ground in their first 100 days. The only possible reason the DNC would ever have to be scared of a Sanders nomination is how he polls against any of the GOP candidates. He polls pretty well.

Politico says that Wasserman Schultz is one of the last Hillary allies sticking to her from 2008. The Huffington Post published an article that drew an unsavory connection between the DNC and Hillary; the underlying rationale behind limiting debates may have to do with trying to shield Hillary from having to answer really uncomfortable questions too many times. That could give Democratic voters even less reason to trust her. This strategy would help Hillary…and hurt Bernie.

That could be heavily influencing what the DNC is doing to Bernie now. Since the Sanders campaign acted appropriately when it discovered both the glitch and the fact that one of its own staffers had wrongfully accessed Hillary’s campaign data, it looks like the DNC was looking for an excuse to cripple Sanders’ campaign.

And crippled it will be if they don’t lift this suspension as soon as possible. Bernie needs the master voter file for his campaign to even be able to function. The DNC knows that. This is just plain low.