Democrats in Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s home state want the Florida Democratic Rep. “to just go away.”
According to Politico, following a stream of political failures and controversies after a DNC email hack last year revealed embarrassing information regarding Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, Wasserman Schultz is a now unwelcome among her colleagues.
Most recently, Wasserman Schultz refused to explain why she continued to employ an IT staffer who was under federal investigation, and who later tried fleeing to Pakistan after wiring himself $283,000.
Although the Florida Democrat finally fired the staffer, Imran Awan, it was only months after not cooperating with law enforcement, and one day after federal authorities arrested him, before he attempted to leave the country.
Additionally, a group of her fellow Democrats, who had also employed Awan as a shared IT staffer in the Capitol, dismissed him and his working family members last February when law enforcement began investigating the group for stealing equipment and breaching network security.
Wasserman Schultz blamed “right wing media” and anti-Muslim bigotry for questions regarding her further employment of Awan long after other Democrats cut him off, but other Democrats are not buying her explanation and wish to see her gone.
“We wish she would go away and stop being so public by doubling down on negative stories,” Nikki Barnes, a progressive Florida DNC member, told Politico. Barnes claims Wasserman Schultz left the national party “in shambles” while she was chairwoman, noting both the DNC server hack and 2016 presidential campaign loss for Democrats. Barnes responded to Schultz defense of Awan, saying that “none of this makes sense. It doesn’t sound like racial profiling … there must have been something for her.”
(RELATED: Wasserman Schultz Seemingly Planned To Pay Suspect Even While He Lived In Pakistan)
“This adds to Debbie being re-branded as the Democrats’ disastrous destruction,” Barnes said. “Those of us on the DNC know we have to rebrand ourselves and earn the people’s trust. And unfortunately Debbie’s name does not scream trust. It screams power. It screams limited access. It screams WikiLeaks now. DNC lawsuit. It screams a lot of negative things to the public. That’s not how we want to rebrand ourselves.”
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