With just hours to go until the first Democratic presidential debate, a feud within the party has spilled over into public view with Democratic National Committee officials accusing each other Tuesday of not telling the truth.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s claim that DNC officers were involved in the decision to limit the Democratic debates to six is false.
“I want to make it very clear that the chairwoman had claimed a month ago that she had spoken with, communicated and consulted with officers of the DNC about her decision to limit debates to six and to put this retribution policy in place, this exclusivity clause. And that never occurred,” said Gabbard, a vice chair of the DNC, on CNN.
“I can tell you, speaking for myself, that I didn’t find out about her decision until after the fact. There was no consultation and no communication.”
But Wasserman Schultz told Wolf Blitzer, “there were many people consulted, including officers” and it’s “ridiculous” that Gabbard has decided to make herself the focus of the debate.
“She spent a lot of this morning continuing to focus on process and herself instead of our great candidates, which is really unfortunate,” Wasserman Schultz said. “This is the problem. She wants to distract from the focus that needs to be on our candidates.”
“We have one of our officers sadly quibbling about process. It’s not about her or me. This is about moving America forward. That’s what I’m focused on,” she added.
Wasserman Schultz said she’s attempted to contact Gabbard, but that Gabbard is not interested in talking.
“I’ve repeatedly offered to talk to Congresswoman Gabbard and thus far, she has refused to do so,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Gabbard previously said she was disinvited from Tuesday night’s first Democratic debate after voicing a call for more of them.
“We have some very serious candidates running for president. And the policy that the chairwoman has put in place basically says that if they participate in any other debate outside of the DNC six sanctioned debates, then they’ll be punished. They won’t be allowed to participate in any of the DNC debates,” she said Tuesday. “This is just wrong, in my view.”
Gabbard told Blitzer on Monday on “The Situation Room” that she was told her vocal support for more debates had made her “no longer welcome to come to the debate.”
Gabbard said the message was conveyed to her chief-of-staff from the chief-of-staff of Wasserman Schultz.
“The prevailing message of that was that because I continued to call for more debates, that I should not go to the debate in Las Vegas,” Gabbard previously said. “The issue here is not about me saying, ‘Boo hoo, I’m going to miss the party.’ The issue here is one of democracy and freedom of speech.”
“That’s simply not true,” Wasserman Schultz told CNN Tuesday of that specific accusation.
Both Bernie Sanders’ and Martin O’Malley’s campaigns have called for more debates. But Wasserman Schultz has remained steadfast in her decision that there will only be six sanctioned debates for the Democratic presidential candidates.