Bernie Sanders, DNC chair Schultz escalate war of words
A defiant Bernie Sanders flatly rejected the notion that his campaign had a hand in encouraging the raucous, and in some cases violent, nature of his supporters at last weekend's Nevada Democratic convention.
"I reject any implication that our campaign supports violence," Sanders told CBS News on Wednesday.
This feud is the latest iteration of Sanders' ongoing fight with much of the Democratic Party's leadership. The Nevada Democrats wrote a letter earlier in the week that warned of the Sanders Campaign's "penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior" after his supporters disrupted the convention.
They noted that it has the potential to bubble up at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz later criticized Sanders for fueling the fire in failing to outright condemning the violence that occurred.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said Wasserman Schultz was "throwing shade" at Sanders' campaign. When asked about that comment, Wasserman Schultz told CNN "my response to that is hashtag SMH," a popular social media acronym that stands for "shaking my head."
Sanders, however, did eventually condemn any violence in Nevada.
"Our campaign condemns violence of all kinds and we condemn personal harassment," Sanders said on Monday. But when Sanders initially put out a statement on the situation he did not use such direct language. He even started it the written statement in highlighting the "changing" political world and "outraged" Americans.
Sanders is now taking his comments further in calling out Schultz and other Democratic leaders for "creating tension."
"I resent very much for any Democratic leader to suggest in any way that the Sanders campaign and millions of our supporters push violence," Sanders said. "That is a lie, that is an outrage and I hope that that statement will not be made again."
There is video footage showing Sanders supporters booing Senator Barbara Boxer, a Clinton supporter and liberal stalwart, at the Nevada convention. There is also evidence that Sanders supporters sent angry voicemails and online messages to the chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party.
"We are moving forward," Wasserman Schutlz said as she sought to calm the escalating animosity in an interview with CBS News.
"It's going to be important for Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton to come together at the end of this no matter which one of them is ultimately our presumptive nominee and the conversation and the tone that they set is going to send a strong message to both of their supporters," she explained.
While Sanders believes that the Nevada chaos was is an anomaly he did not detail what he would do to prevent such chaos from breaking out in the future.