Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz did not consult with other committee officials before deciding to the limit the number of primary debates, Bloomberg Politics managing editor John Heilmann reported Wednesday.
His reporting confirms what DNC vice chair Tulsi Gabbard has been saying for the last several days and contradicts Wasserman Schultz’s long-standing claim.
Heilemann, appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday, also said it is true that Wasserman Schultz disinvited Gabbard after she publicly protested the debate limit.
“Tulsi Gabbard is telling the truth … as far as I can tell,” Heilemann said. “I mean, the difference between what the chairwoman Wasserman Schultz is saying and what Tulsi Gabbard are saying about the disinvitation is just a matter of semantics. It’s clear that Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s chief of staff called up and basically said if Rep. Gabbard wants to keep talking about there needing to be more debates, maybe she should reconsider going to the debate in Las Vegas.” (RELATED: DNC Vice Chair: Wasserman Schultz’s Claim Is False [VIDEO])
“I cannot find a vice chair who was consulted in advance by Debbie Wasserman Schultz,” Heilemann said later. “Everybody that I have talked to, and that includes about a dozen people with knowledge of how this decision got made, all say that she made the decision unilaterally. And that the vice chairs all learned about it via press release.”
Host Joe Scarborough asked him if Wasserman Schultz is “a little more than just a place holder for Hillary Clinton, that she’s just a member of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in a very powerful position?”
Heilemann said, “All the Democratic candidates wanted there to be more debates. There was only one campaign that wanted there to be fewer debates and that was the Clinton campaign. And we ended up with fewer debates. So kind of on the face of it, it seems like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was a co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign — I think it’s pretty, I think there’s a prima fascia case here. Like I say, every other campaign wanted more debates.”