WikiLeaks Tries to Wreck the DNC
NOAH ROTHMAN / JULY 24, 2016
Following a Republican nominating convention that was marred by bizarre scheduling, leaks to Democratic operatives, chaos, and disunion, the bar for relative success at the Democratic convention the following week was set pretty low. With the wounds from the primary process appearing, at least superficially, to have healed, Democrats were set to strike a favorable contrast to the GOP with a largely uneventful coronation and a display of common purpose. That would have been an illusion. As WikiLeaks demonstrated this week with the release of a series of covertly obtained emails from the Democratic National Committee, the appearance of party unity was only ever just that: appearance.
Of the nearly 20,000 emails released by WikiLeaks, many of them contain delicate communications from seven key DNC employees. The emails contradict Democratic claims that no sensitive information was exposed by the initial hack in Kaine’s selection as Clinton’s vice presidential nominee will not achieve the sorely needed unification of the Democrat Party.
Kaine has castigated opponents of free trade agreements as “losers,” and strongly supported the war in Iraq.
Kaine supported the 1994 Clinton crime bill which Hillary Clinton partially blames for the “era of mass incarceration,” voiced strong opposition to gay marriage and casts himself as a “pro-life” politician who supports a ban on partial birth abortion.
On energy and taxes, Kaine supports offshore drilling and clean coal and signed the complete repeal of the Virginia’s estate tax.
Despite opposition from organized labor, Kaine supports Virginia’s Right to Work law.
The criticism doesn’t stop there, with the Republican Party castigating Kaine for being a fan of free trade and against taxes:
In 2007, Kaine Attacked Opponents Of NAFTA And CAFTA, Saying “This Is Something I Feel Really Passionate About.” “Without identifying him, Kaine cited the views of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who was quoted in the New York Times last year as saying of free-trade agreements: ‘I was a critic of NAFTA, I was a critic of CAFTA and I’ll be a critic of SHAFTA.’ ‘I always laugh when I hear that, but I really think that it’s wrong,’ Kaine said. ‘This is something I feel really passionate about.'” (Scott Lanman, “Virginia’s Kaine Warns Democrats Protectionism Is A ‘Loser,'” Bloomberg, 5/30/07)
In 2007, Kaine Signed An Estate Tax Repeal. “Rich and poor alike will benefit from changes in Virginia’s tax laws. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine symbolically signed into law yesterday a measure that will remove about 140,000 low-income people from the tax rolls by raising the filing threshold, beginning in the 2008 tax year. And, as of Sunday, the tax on larger estates in Virginia was repealed. The repeal legislation was passed by the General Assembly last year but did not take effect until July 1 this year.” (Tyler Whitley, “Kaine Signs Measure For Low-Income Tax Break,” Richmond Times Dispatch, 7/4/07)
The GOP’s second piece included comments from The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Slate’s Nora Caplan-Bricker, The Bernie Delegates Network, and Democracy For America which were all negative of the Kaine pick. It’s pretty obvious the Republican Party is trying to shift focus away from its own issue of disunity and put the spotlight on the fact the Democrats are just as fractured, if not more. Based on how the DNC Rules Committee went, the GOP may have a point. Via the Pro-Sanders website U.S. Uncut:
Bruce Jacobs, an attorney and Sanders delegate from Miami, Florida, told US Uncut that animosity between Sanders delegates and establishment Democrats was palpable after the superdelegate votes, and that this fight is just the beginning.
“We just kept going back up and going back up and going back up, and every vote was coming up with Bernie delegates as yes, and Hillary delegates as no, and it was like that every time,” Jacobs said. “Either Hillary Clinton is going to offer an olive branch and we’ll do something that everyone is going to vote for, or their answer is going to be ‘fall in line and be happy about it.’ And that’s not going to work for Bernie’s campaign.”
Sanders delegates were also apparently removed from the room, before being escorted out of the area entirely.
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Finally, the source of these email leaks should disturb all Americans of every political stripe. These emails, laundered through WikiLeaks, were likely obtained by Russian intelligence operatives in June. “The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some Republican political action committees, U.S. officials said,” the Washington Post reported at the time. It is no coincidence that only a handful of these communications specifically related to Democrats were released on the eve of a Democratic nominating convention. This has the appearance of a foreign power directly interfering in an American election, and that’s not something to take lightly.
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