Big announcement on eve of DNC

Committee's congresswoman announces she's resigning at week's end

PHILADELPHIA – The day before Democrats spend the week getting activists excited about presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the primary rival to the former Secretary of State has ammunition to back up his claims.

The big news the day before the Democratic National Convention - Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz has announced she'll resign at the end of the week. She steps aside amid some pressure from the party over an email scandal.

The emails allegedly show the DNC favored Hillary Clinton during the primary process and did not do all it could to help Bernie Sanders get the nomination.

Former Congressman Jason Altmire is attending the convention this week. He told News4Jax it's not entirely unexpected Schultz would be stepping aside considering what the emails seem to show.

"There's a criticism that Senator (Bernie) Sanders had all the way through the process," Altmire said. " He felt like the DNC was favoring Hillary (Clinton). In retrospect, it's now proven through emails that it looks like that's what was the case.

"From Debbie's (Schultz) perspective, the fact that the convention is right around the corner, these emails are out and the Sanders supporters are going to be there, it was just in the best interest of everybody to move in a different direction."

Another topic during this election year's conventions is security. News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said security at the DNC may differ from the RNC.

"They won't need to bring in as many outside officers as they did in Cleveland," Smith said. "They have 6,500 officers in the Philadelphia Police Department, so they'll probably use officers that are part of the Pennsylvania Highway Patrol."

Smith said the security in Cleveland, Ohio was very successful. He said there were no major incidents and whenever there was a problem, they moved quickly to deal with it.
 


About the Authors:

Kent Justice co-anchors News4Jax's 5 p.m., 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts weeknights and reports on government and politics. He also hosts "This Week in Jacksonville," Channel 4's hot topics and politics public affairs show each Sunday morning at 9 a.m.