DNC chair Wasserman Schultz won’t gavel open convention

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — The Latest on the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (all times EDT):

Outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman says she won’t gavel her party’s national convention to order on Monday afternoon.

She abruptly cancelled that plan just a few hours before she was to gavel open the nominating convention. In a brief phone conversation with the Sun Sentinel newspaper of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Wasserman Schultz said:

“I have decided that in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note that I am not going to gavel in the convention.”

The Florida congresswoman had announced she would resign her post at the helm of the DNC in the wake of an email scandal involving her aides — but still gavel open and closed the Democrats’ nominating convention this week. That was before she was booed and heckled as she spoke to her home state delegation from people angry that the hacked emails apparently showed some aides favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the party’s presidential primary.

She added in her comments to the newspaper: “This needs to be all about making sure that everyone knows that Hillary Clinton would make the best president.”