By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is reacting to the Democratic National Committee email hacking scandal involving outgoing party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Over the weekend the website Wikileaks published illegally hacked DNC emails it obtained, which showed Wasserman-Schultz favored Hillary Clinton in her Presidential primary battle against Bernie Sanders, even though Wasserman-Schultz was supposed to be neutral.
In an interview with WLS News, Durbin said he does not think most people care about it.
“If you went out on State Street and asked the first passerby to name the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee I’m certain they won’t know. It’s kind of inside baseball.”
However Durbin admits it was wrong for Wasserman Schultz to show favoritism to Clinton over Sanders.
“It’s an important issue. Bernie Sanders said the DNC was not objective and neutral. He said that all during his campaign and now the emails come out and suggest he was right.”
Durbin credits Clinton for forcing Wasserman Schultz to step down. He’s also confident Sanders backers will vote in large numbers for Clinton against Donald Trump in November, and will not refuse to vote because of anger against the Democratic party.
“I think it’s clear when you contrast the Trump message with the Hillary Clinton message. Trump’s position on some of these issues, he wants to eliminate the minimum wage? For goodness sakes how does that help a working family, a struggling family, trying to go to work and keep things together.”
Durbin spoke as a new CNN poll was released which showed Trump received a six point bump after last week’s Republican convention, to now lead Clinton 44 to 39 percent nationally.
Durbin was asked why he thinks Trump is so popular despite a series of missteps and controversial statements.
“He is an entertainer. He knows how to captivate the medium of television and others, tweets, and you name it. He really is a master at that. I credit him with that. But when it comes to public service he has no background. When it comes to his position on public issues, he appeals to anger, fear and hate.”
@2016 WLS-AM News
