published Jul 24th 2016, 12:46 pm, by Steven T. Dennis and Scott Lanman

(Bloomberg) —
Bernie Sanders called on Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign Sunday after leaks of e-mails showed committee staffers secretly helping Hillary Clinton.

The almost 20,000 e-mails, released on Friday by WikiLeaks, has thrown the Democratic Party into disarray on the eve of its national convention in Philadelphia by reopening old wounds from the drawn-out Clinton-Sanders primary tussle.

“She should resign, period,” Sanders said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” off the Florida congresswoman. “We need a new chair that is going to lead us in a different direction.” One DNC official who later appeared on the program said she had apologized to the Sanders campaign and predicted that people would have to step down.

The Vermont senator reiterated his support for Clinton and opposition to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. His comments came after Trump made explicit pitches for Sanders’ supporters last week in his acceptance speech in Cleveland and again over the weekend after the WikiLeaks e-mail release.

“To my mind what is most important now is defeating the worst candidate I have seen in my lifetime, Donald Trump,” Sanders said.

“Most of my supporters understand that Trump has got to be defeated,” said Sanders, citing Trump’s opposition to raising the minimum wage, his plans to cut taxes for the rich and reverse health care reforms, his lack of belief in climate change and his attacks on various groups including Mexicans and women.

Sanders, whose primary battle with Clinton stretched into June, appeared on three Sunday political shows and will address the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday night.

It’s unclear if Wasserman Schultz’s speaking role at the convention will be diminished. Presumptive presidential nominee Clinton on Saturday tapped Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, to chair the Democratic National Convention.

A convention committee source who asked not to be named, however, said Wasserman Schultz had never expected to be the permanent chair of the convention. The sitting DNC chair serves as the nominal chair of the convention until a permanent chair is named.

Russia Accusation

Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these e-mails, and other experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these e-mails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump.”

The Republican nominee’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., responded later in the CNN program that Mook’s remarks were “disgusting” and “phony,” and accused him of lying. Clinton’s campaign will “say anything to be able to win this,” Trump Jr. said.

Sanders’s anger at the DNC is undiminished.

“I told you a long time ago that the DNC was not running a fair operation, that they were supporting Secretary Clinton,” Sanders said on ABC. “So what I suggested to be true six months ago turns out, in fact, to be true. I’m not shocked. But I am disappointed.”

Heads to Roll?

Sanders has endorsed Tim Canova, a progressive who is seeking to defeat Representative Wasserman Schultz, in Florida’s Democratic Aug. 30 primary.

Donna Brazile, a vice chair of the DNC, said later on the program she had apologized to the Sanders campaign on Saturday.

“The allegations, the e-mails, the insensitivity, the stupidity, needs to be addressed, and it will be addressed,” she said.

She also predicted additional e-mails will be leaked and some people will have to go. “Will some people have to step down, be removed, resign?” she asked rhetorically. “I’m sure at the end of the day, yes.”

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This is so laughable. She gets fired for an email scandal while Hillary Clinton does the same thing and gets nominated to be the Democratic candidate!!!–W.