Photo: Ted Eytan
“You’re not paranoid if people ARE really out to get you,” said Joseph Heller, (Author of Catch-22).
That may be comforting to Bernie Sanders as Wikileaks’ traffic spikes.
For months Sanders has claimed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was colluding against him. It appears he was right.
The latest email scandal is not about being “careless” as the FBI Director labeled Hillary. It’s not something that is open to different interpretations. The latest leak is blatant and shows a predisposition towards arrogance and hate.
The scandal has also taken down DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
The emails talk about horse electrocution, racial mocking and infiltrators in the Sanders campaign. With over 20K emails, space is limited, so not all of the emails are addressed. NOTE: Click on each subheading to be taken to the pertinent email on WikiLeaks’ site.
If anyone missed the story, George is the son of one of the richest men on the planet, George Lindemann, Senior. George Junior grew up in Greenwich and graduated from Brown, but his mind was set on being in the Olympics. To help Junior reach his goal, Senior bought his boy Cellular Farm in Armonk, New York. Junior proved as inept at managing a horse farm as he was riding and Pop got tired of footing the bills.
Junior spent a quarter-million of his dad’s money on “Charisma”, a jumper that Junior thought would bring fame and fortune. The horse was a bust and rather than admit defeat, Junior hired a professional horse killer to come up to Armonk and electrocute the horse.
How does all this fit into the DNC, Clinton, and the leaked emails? George Junior was a significant contributor to both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Since George got into legal trouble, Republicans have returned the donations in an effort to distance themselves. The Democrats all returned the money as well — except Ms. Clinton.
LaQueenia Gibson, a Black Executive Assistant, with the DNC was the target of one of the leaked emails.
An exchange between DNC Finance Chairman Zachary Allen and Finance Chief of Staff, Scott Conner, the two make fun of Ms. Gibson’s name.
Sent under the subject line: “DNC LGBT Event” Allen wrote: “LaQueenia is a N A M E!”
Other leaked emails show a propensity for using anti-gay language as well as racially charged terms.
Hillary Supporters Infiltrate Sanders’ Campaign
As early as March, 2016, Niko House, president of North Carolina College Students for Bernie made explosive allegations that the Sanders campaign was being sabotaged from the inside by Clinton supporters.
House’s accusations centered on Sanders’ North Carolina statewide director, Aisha Dew. She inexplicably canceled events, pushed out volunteer organizers and refused to accept endorsements from Mayor Chris Rey as well as the NAACP and Black Caucus members. The most damning evidence against Dew; her pro-Clinton social media posts and photos taken with DNC chair Wasserman-Schulz.
The leaked emails vindicated Niko.
In May 2016, Sanders’ campaign director, Jeff Weaver, was critical of a Clinton operations fundraising plan that state party leaders termed as a self-serving “money laundering” channel.
Despite Clinton’s promises to restore state parties’ financials, researchers determined under 1 percent of the $60 million raised by the Victory Fund remained in the Vermont parties’ coffers.
Weaver told Politico, “Secretary Clinton is pirating money intended for state parties to bypass fundraising caps on her presidential.”
Weaver’s allegations were proven correct in the leaked emails.
The Takeaway
The pushback from the email leak has been swift and brutal. Whenever a leak of this size occurs, people understand someone is going to look bad. Had the Russians chased after the Republican National Committee, there may have been some unsavory revelations, as well. Unfortunately for Wasserman-Schultz and the crew at the DNC, the fall guy wasn’t the RNC.
The fiasco isn’t over yet. Julian Assange, the man who founded Wikileaks, announced plans to release more emails indicting both Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
Another Joseph Heller quote shows how this mess could have been averted. Heller said: “Rise above principle and do what’s right.”