Bernie Must Disavow: Effort Grows To Convince Bernie Sanders To Rescind His Endorsement Of Hillary Clinton After DNC Email Leak Shows Party Was Working Against Him

An effort called “Bernie must disavow” has been sweeping across the internet this weekend. It attempts to persuade Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to rescind his endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the wake of a scandal that shows the Democratic National Committee appearing to conspire against the Sanders campaign from the start.

The scandal started when WikiLeaks released close to 20,000 emails from the DNC, many of which showed staffers appearing to work in support of Clinton’s campaign, ABC News noted. The scandal has rocked the Democratic Party, prompting Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver to express his disappointment with the DNC.

“Someone does have to be held accountable,” Weaver told ABC News. “We spent 48 hours of public attention worrying about who in the [Donald] Trump campaign was going to be held responsible for the fact that some lines of Mrs. Obama’s speech were taken by Mrs. Trump. Someone in the DNC needs to be held at least as accountable as the Trump campaign.”

The DNC is required by its charter to remain neutral in the Democratic primary, but the DNC email leak showed that its members appeared to favor Hillary Clinton and work against Bernie Sanders.

The emails also showed members of the party, including DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, showing disdain and frustration with the Sanders campaign. Some even advocated for calling out Sanders for his religious background, insinuating that the Vermont Senator is an atheist.

“It might may [sic] no difference, but for KY and WA can we get someone to ask his belief,” Brad Marshall, CFO of DNC, wrote back in early May. “Does he believe in God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My southern baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”

In another email, party leader Mark Paustenbach asked about the party pushing the narrative that “Bernie never had his act together, that his campaign was a mess,” though the DNC ultimately decided to “leave it alone” after Wasserman Schultz’s advice that the party “not engage” directly with the Sanders campaign.

To many Sanders supporters still bruised after a contentious primary, the DNC email leak was proof of the bias they had believed the party showed against Bernie Sanders. Though the Bernie or Bust movement appears to have shrunk since the primary, there are still many members of his camp who remain sharply opposed to Hillary Clinton, with some lingering resentment toward Sanders for his endorsement of Clinton earlier this month.

That led to the “Bernie must disavow” movement, which gained steam on Saturday. Many people took to social media to decry the DNC email leak and call on Sanders to take back his endorsement. The hashtag #BernieMustDisavow even swept across Twitter, becoming one of the top trends for the day.

The #BernieMustDisavow movement has picked up in popularity at a difficult time for Hillary Clinton. She has seen her lead over Donald Trump in the polls evaporate in the wake of the Republican National Convention, and the DNC email leak has taken some of the wind out of her sails going into her own convention, which was expected to be a high point for her campaign.

But for all the popularity of the “Bernie must disavow” movement and the #BernieMustDisavow hashtag remaining atop Twitter, it’s not clear if the Vermont Senator is getting the message. His campaign has restricted their criticism to the DNC itself, and Sanders is still listed among the main speakers at this week’s Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton.

[Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images]