One day after she announced her resignation in the wake of the #DNCLeak scandal and just hours after being booed by angry party delegates earlier in the day, news broke early Monday afternoon that Debbie Wasserman Schultz will not gavel into session this year's Democratic Party Convention.
Despite saying earlier she would relinquish her post only after presiding over the convention, Wasserman Schultz spoke with the Sun Sentinel from her home state of Florida and said: "I have decided that in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note that I am not going to gavel in the convention."
The official start of the convention in Philadelphia is scheduled for 4 PM EDT.
According to the Sentinel, Wasserman Schultz asked Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, secretary of the Democratic National Committee, to take her place though as of this writing it remained unclear who might actually take her place.
As Common Dreams reported earlier on Monday, Wasserman Schultz, who announced Sunday that she would step down after leaked emails showed party officials working throughout the primary season to undermine the insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders, was greeted by boos and derision while making remarks at a breakfast for the Florida delegation.
The news that Wasserman Schultz would not, in the end, have any visible role in the convention came just as Bernie Sanders was delivering remarks to approximately 1900 delegates gathered for the convention. "We have made history," he told those gathered, but the level of party "dis-unity" remained palpable when even many of his most ardent supporters could be heard booing when he declared how important it was to elect Hillary Clinton as president.
