Even though Democratic U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz continues to do her best to stay in the limelight even though she resigned from her chairperson position in 2016, there are some old allegations that continue to dog her.
Let’s not mince words here: even though it was buried when the story first came out, Debbie Wasserman Schultz was once accused of physically assaulting a volunteer pollster of one of her primary opponents.
Here is the story from NBC News in 2016:
Apparently, Debbie Wasserman Schultz “verbally abused” and “physically shoved” volunteer pollster Martina Velazquez, 16, when this young political activist was handing cards out and claiming that Schultz wasn’t doing enough to help clean up the environment.
Velazquez was working with DWS’s primary opponent, Attorney Jen Perelman. Interestingly enough, Perelman is running yet again in the 2020 election as well.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s little temper fit on this young volunteer definitely had some deleterious consequences on her personal resume. First of all, it meant that DWS was forced to step down as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee right before the party’s convention in 2016.
Additionally, it also meant that another blemish came forward. Let me remind you that there were some revelations from leaked internal emails that showed that the DNC was attempting to do everything in their power to make Hillary Clinton the nominee over Bernie Sanders. However, DWS ended up having to sacrifice herself:
“Going forward, the best way for some of these goals to be accomplished would be for me to step down as Party Chair at the end of the upcoming convention (2016),” Schultz noted in her lengthy statement about her decision and how she hoped it would unify her party. (Of course, hindsight being 2020, it’s debatable how well this worked)
Getting back to this incident between DWS and the Perelman volunteer, her opponent said that while she didn’t believe that DWS was necessarily attempting to hurt her campaign worker, she didn’t appreciate that Schultz got all alpha-female on her. Perelman ended up challenging DWS by saying the following:
“This is the only time I’m going to say this, but if you decide to try to put your hands on anyone, it should be me. You have a lot of nerve doing it with my volunteer. Don’t you EVER touch her again.”
“She ended up shoving me,” Velazquez said. “Then, she proceeded to call me a liar to my face.”
“She was completely and unnecessarily aggressive,” Perelman said. “I don’t believe she was trying to hurt my volunteer on purpose, but boy, she did manhandle her.”
What do you think about these allegations coming to light regarding DWS?