There’s a lot that is still unknown about the Wikileaks email dump. The emails were originally taken off the DNC servers, likely by Russian hackers, as detailed in the Washington Post and elsewhere. Eventually they made their way to Wikileaks and were then released. At this point, what happened in between is not entirely clear, though the speculation about Russian government ties to Donald Trump is fascinating and should be explored further.
But two things are clear. One: the publication of these emails, three days before the Democratic National Convention, was a deliberate attempt to cause trouble and/or embarrassment for the party and for its presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton. Two: this attempt mostly failed, because both campaigns and their surrogates dodged the traps that had been set for them. The forces of party unity, on all sides, have proven stronger than those who attempt to divide us.
I’ll now explain what the traps were and how we avoided them.
Trap number one: It would have been easy to completely dismiss the emails, and I’m sure that was a tempting thought for the Clinton campaign. Especially since the emails didn’t contain a massive amount of shocking news. Early news articles even said there were “no smoking guns” in the emails at all.
But that doesn’t mean there was nothing wrong in the emails. The frustration exhibited by the DNC towards Sanders late in the primary process, while perhaps understandable given his harsh criticism, was a very bad idea. The image of impartiality is important. Worst of all was the suggestion to religion-bait Sanders, which was absolutely inexcusable. It was not acted on, but it was still a fireable offense and caused justified outrage.
To their credit, once the outrage started to percolate through the media and Sanders-aligned online communities, Clinton and her camp realized that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s status as head of the DNC could not survive. They joined the Sanders campaign in pressing for her ouster, and she is indeed stepping down.
The Clinton campaign took other steps to calm the waters. Donna Brazile apologized to the Sanders delegates on behalf of the DNC, which was by all accounts well-received. And the Rules Committee continued its good unifying work by adopting a compromise proposal on superdelegates.
Trap number two: Bernie Sanders and his campaign did not overreact. It would have been easy for Sanders to fume - I’m sure that losing the primary still stings. He could have decided to go all Ted Cruz on the Democratic convention, forcing the Clinton camp to either pull his speech or face a pointed attack from the convention floor. Indeed, my personal feeling is that this was the consequence that the leakers hoped for.
Fortunately, as detailed in First Amendment's excellent diary this morning, Sanders did not take the bait. He expressed disappointment in some of the DNC’s actions, but this morning kept his main focus on defeating Donald Trump and electing Hillary Clinton — again saying the latter in as many words. He is likely to give a barn burner of a speech tomorrow, clarifying the massive difference between a Clinton presidency and a Trump presidency on the issues that he and his supporters care about.
Instead, Sanders and his camp kept their eye on the ball. The real question was Wasserman-Schultz’s leadership, and they correctly pushed for her resignation. They got it. Jeff Weaver has been conciliatory throughout as well. There are a few people causing trouble, but most of them are outside the convention hall.
Notably, the Sanders campaign resisted the urge to make accusations that were not in fact supported by the email evidence. No one in the campaign called the primary rigged, or suggested that Clinton’s legitimacy as nominee was tainted. And no one in the campaign, as far as I can tell, accused Hillary Clinton or the Clinton campaign of active collusion with the DNC. This is remarkable restraint and the Sanders campaign should be applauded.
In conclusion: nice try. But Democrats are united and we’re not going to take the bait. We should all try to live up to the excellent example set by both campaigns this weekend.