Trevor Noah asks Debbie Wasserman Schultz if Bernie Sanders ‘is being c***blocked by the DNC’
Since taking over for Jon Stewart last fall, “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah has — rightly or wrongly — been criticized for being soft when it comes to skewering the 2016 presidential race.
But Noah did just that on Monday night when he asked his guest, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, if Bernie Sanders “is being c***blocked by the DNC.”
Wasserman Schultz quickly dismissed Noah’s suggestion.
“You know, as powerful as that makes me feel, I’m not doing a very good job of rigging the outcome or blocking anyone from getting their message out,” she replied. “The reality is that I have a job as national party chair that is one that requires a thick skin. It requires me to be able to absorb the body blows so our candidates can stay above the fray.”
The DNC leader defended the superdelegate process as an American election tradition.
“We’ve had superdelegates since I graduated in high school in 1984,” she said. “[But] it’s voters that can and should determine that outcome, and they always have,”
Wasserman Schultz also defended the sparse Democratic debate schedule. The DNC initially scheduled just six debates, compared to 26 in 2008 — a move critics say benefited Hillary Clinton.
“From our standpoint, I want them debating every day,” she said. “And I bet my counterpart, [Republican National Committee Chairman] Reince Priebus, wants [the GOP candidates] to debate never. Because every time they open their mouth, they do something to alienate somebody else.”
Debbie Wasserman Schultz appeared on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” on Monday. (Photo: Comedy Central)
It’s not the first time the DNC has been accused of tipping the scales in favor of Clinton in the battle for the Democratic nomination. In December, the Sanders campaign filed a lawsuit against the party organization after the DNC announced it would block Sanders’ team from accessing its massive file of voter information following revelations that a software error allowed at least one Sanders staffer to access data from Clinton’s campaign.
“The leadership of the Democratic National Committee is now actively attempting to undermine our campaign,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said at the time. “This is unacceptable. Individual leaders of the DNC can support Hillary Clinton in any way they want, but they are not going to sabotage our campaign — one of the strongest grassroots campaigns in modern history.”
And Wasserman Schultz herself has been accused of being in the pocket of the former secretary of state.
The Florida congresswoman, who served as the co-chair of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, has been called a “Clinton surrogate” by Sanders’ grassroots supporters.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper in February, Wasserman Schultz suggested superdelegates are necessary to keep activists from steering the election.
“What do you tell voters who are new to the process who say this makes them feel like it’s all rigged?” Tapper asked the DNC chair.
“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists,” she replied.
