Here, from the Washington Post article on the most damning things learned from the emails:
#1 - Targeting Sanders’s religion?
This looks bad but what happened was that one person made a very horrible idea and there is zero evidence that it was ever acted upon. It’s not like Hillary said “Great idea!” It seems nobody did.
#2 - Wasserman Schultz calls top Sanders aide a “damn liar”
He was a damn liar. Camp Sanders’ reaction to what happened in Nevada was a reason I went from excusing his campaign for the stupidity of it’s most ardent followers to seeing them as culpable.
#3 - … and says Sanders has “no understanding” of the party
This email was sent in late April well after Bernie already lost and the DNC was watching Trump gain traction in polls while Bernie was being divisive. In the context of the time the email was sent, this is not especially shocking of a revelation.
#4 - A Clinton lawyer gives DNC strategy advice on Sanders
He was copied on an email and responded with his opinion, and again there is no evidence that his suggestion was acted upon.
#5 - Plotting a narrative about how Sanders’s campaign failed
Another one where the timing is important. It was sent in late May. Bernie had already been eliminated and the DNC wanted him to come around. I feel their frustrations at the way Bernie handled the endgame because I shared in them.
#6 - Mocking Sanders for his California debate push
He deserved to be mocked for that. The contest was over long before then.
#7 - Wishing Sanders would just end it
No shit.
#8 - Calling an alleged Sanders sympathizer a “Bernie bro”
Compared to the charges of corruption and malfeasance that the Sanders campaign lobbied at the DNC (and also Democrats at the state level, see Nevada) - calling someone a “Bernie Bro” is pretty slim pickings.
#9 - Criticizing Obama for lack of fundraising help – “That’s f—ing stupid”
It doesn’t have to do with Bernie at all but even this one is hilarious if you look at the whole chain:
“He really won’t go up 20 minutes for $350k?” Shapiro wrote. “THAT’S f—ing stupid.”
DNC national finance director Jordan Kaplan responded: “or he is the president of the united states with a pretty big day job.”
How many of us have had email exchanges at our places of employment about the boss?
#10 - Flippant chatter about donors
In funeral homes there is flippant chatter about dead people who meant the world to their loved ones. In strip clubs there is flippant chatter about how the person the strippers flirted with is a creep.
I am guilty of flippant chatter about many customers at both of my jobs that I wouldn’t want them to hear. And so are you.
If these are among the “most damaging” things about the emails, it’s much ado about nothing.
I hated Debbie Wasserman Schultz for reasons unrelated to her work at the DNC so I have no problems with her taking the fall over this but the fact is that the HRC campaign was already on their way to getting rid of her anyway, something I pointed out several weeks ago when it hit the news.
The only way to view this is “damaging” is if you feel that Bernie was still in the race longer than he really was. The DNC knows what those of us who know math and demographics know - the race was over a long time ago.
Some Bernie supporters had (and still have to this day) very unreasonable and untenable views about where Bernie stood at any given time. He was in bad shape - again, using math and demographics as the metrics (which are the only things consistent in elections).
Bernie supporters scream that the DNC’s obligation wasn’t to any one candidate, and they are correct, but they ignore what their obligation was: To represent the person who the people chose as their candidate. And they were unable to do that when Bernie became Weekend at Bernies, a candidate who was dead but a bunch of people didn’t realize it.
Emails in April and May expressing frustration that they were unable to move onto the general is not a flaw in the system and not evidence that it was “rigged.” It is simply a few people in the DNC expressing frustrations that Bernie Sanders was nothing more than a shell on life support with no chance of political life drawing out the process in an unprecedented manner.
Also, it should be telling that even these supposed bombshells have done nothing to diminish Bernie’s support for Hillary or his new life as a Democrat. Considering how so many Bernie supporters (I had to stop myself from saying “Bernie Bros” because heaven forbid I offend someone) said that they were attracted by his integrity, they sure seem quick to label him a sellout.
The DNC emails show a handful of quotes out of 20,000 emails from individual members in the organization frustrated that a guy with no chance of winning held up the nomination and coronation of Hillary Clinton, keeping them in a standoff that delayed them doing their fucking job - winning a general election - which allowed the enemy to take a few steps forward with no counter. If the Trump organization was not so incompetent they would have done even better in that regard.
Bernie lost the election by four million votes. He didn’t lose because it was “rigged,” he didn’t lose because of DNC shenanigans and these emails do not suggest that he did.
Nothing in these emails suggest the contest was unfair. Most of them are from when the contest was long over. And there is zero evidence that these expressions of frustrations ever evolved into action against the Sanders campaign.
In fact, nobody can find a single example of Hillary asking Bernie to concede the race even as the DNC were chomping at the bit for him to do so. Because she didn’t ask him to concede. Not once.
These emails are bad optics and nothing more. The Wizard Of Oz was about optics. Only in today’s political climate can people decide to be on the Wizard’s side even after he is exposed as a sham. But Bernie supporters have shown themselves to be unreasonable, paranoid and quick to accept conspiracy theories and play the victim, so why should they stop now?
If being four million votes behind didn’t stop them, nothing will. If they didn’t need encouragement from believing bullshit before, these emails just give them more bullshit to believe.