Subject: Pushback points
From: <[email-masked]>
To: Luis Miranda <[email-masked]>, Mark Paustenbach <[email-masked]>, Ryan Banfill <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 10:52:02 -0400

Here they are:

First – in stark contrast to Reince Preibus who (as John Kasich complained just this week) declared Trump the winner of the primary while there were two other candidates still in the race – DWS has been firmly EVERY SINGLE time saying that Dems have two great candidates and when the primary is over one of them will be a great nominee.  When she is specifically asked if Bernie should get out, she says no and has repeatedly and did again last night.

Sanders/Jeff Weaver has 4 main complaints with DWS that I heard them repeat last night and today:

1)      The debates – a complaint  from long ago. That she put them on weekends so people wouldn’t see them. Wrong. They worked with all the networks AND the campaigns on dates.  And the ratings showed they were the highest watched debates in 3 election cycles – Debates were a success!  And when he wanted more, she went to bat with the Clinton campaign and got more debates

2)      That she cut off their access to DNC lists – hello? Their staffer went into the database unauthorized and reviewed Clinton targeting names.  And when the DNC discovered it and shut them down while they could report the extent of the damage, the Sanders campaign (brilliantly) played victim.  But they weren’t the victim they were the perpetrator

3)      The caucus rules and closed primaries – Caucuses have always been rowdy but DWS made sure that the “Credentials” committee governing each state party caucus was comprised of 50/50 Sanders/Clinton supporters.  In Nevada it was that committee that made the decision to disqualify the delegates that Sanders campaign were complaining about. Because those were the rules.  So how about the rules? Closed primaries and caucuses are decided state by state – not so Bernie Sanders can’t win, but so Republicans can’t infiltrate a Democratic primary to manipulate outcomes.  Right or wrong – and it is debatable – those have been the rules for decades. Instead the Sanders campaign is acting like DWS made up those rules to keep him out.  He chose to run as a Democrat because he wanted the advantage of the party.  Well with the advantages, come the disadvantages.  That was his choice, his responsibility, not her fault.

4)      Nevada Her reaction to Nevada was a human reaction of this really nice female state party chair who called upset because she and her family were getting death threats.  She is a good progressive party loyalist and her team in Nevada was being destroyed by threats and innuendo.  Debbie is loyal to people like that and so she reprimanded Bernie.  Because the fact is that when he says he is losing because the “System is rigged” instead of well - maybe he is just losing – he encourages people to lash out at the DNC and its leadership.

DWS