Column: De León embodied the American dream. After racist audio leak, he’s living a political nightmare
After days of protests, the Democratic National Committee withdrew its endorsement of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her role as Secretary of State.
The move was a painful setback for Clinton, who entered office under a cloud following her use of a private email server for government business, and her public response to allegations of sexual misconduct by Bill Clinton.
It’s unclear what the Clinton campaign’s next move will be and whether it’ll be a new effort to rebuild her support with Latino voters.
And as the dust settles over the leaked audio, the Democratic party is in turmoil.
The DNC’s decision was a direct consequence of the leak of an audio tape leaked by WikiLeaks that shows the nominee for the 2016 campaign, Bernie Sanders, discussing the merits of keeping immigrants out of the United States and a preference for a government “that is going to be a bastion of the people and not a bastion of the billionaire class.”
The leak of the “Podesta email” came as the DNC was struggling to find a replacement for Donna Brazile — the chairwoman who resigned after a video of her giving Hillary Clinton a pre-election party favor was leaked — as a member of the party’s rules and elections committee.
The email, sent by Clinton aide and longtime Clinton confidante John Podesta in 2013, contained a recommendation to the DNC that the group should not endorse Clinton, according to a transcript released by the Obama White House.
“I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page here,” Clinton is heard telling Democratic donors during a 2013 fundraising event in Iowa, the transcript reveals. “A couple of weeks ago, we had a meeting of our Superdelegates who were not with us in the room, and we were really getting questions from them about how we can move forward. And one of the things that comes up a lot [is] about the Sanders wing of the party, and whether or not they believe in keeping people out and limiting immigration. And it got us thinking about how we can do that
