White House spokesman Josh Earnest seemed unconcerned about the violent turmoil gripping the Democratic primary Wednesday, characterizing the increasingly nasty race as "strong feelings on both sides."
The Democrats were embarrassed over the past week after death threats, harassment, and scenes of hysteria came out of the party's Nevada convention. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) condemned the actions there and ripped Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) for an inadequate response to his followers' behavior after he offered an unapologetic statement.
Meanwhile, Sanders and his team have continued to accuse party leaders of rigging the primary process in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Earnest dismissed the acrimony in the party as something that would be forgotten by the time of the general election matchup, but AP reporter Josh Lederman followed up by pointing out the particular nastiness in the primary race.
"Primaries are always hard-fought, I think we acknowledge, but this seems to be a different flavor here," Lederman said. "We've got allegations of violence, of disenfranchisement. The DNC chairwoman saying one of the candidates' campaign is doing insufficient [actions] to address that. Does the president feel no obligation at this point to mediate or to try and resolve some of this? He's basically just going to wait until candidates duke that out amongst themselves to get involved?"
"We have seen that party primaries, particularly ones that are contested as passionately as this one has been, that there are going to be strong feelings on both sides," Earnest said. "But I think one of the lessons of the election in 2008 is not to confuse the passion in the primary for disinterest in the general election. I think, if anything, the reason that people are so passionate about the current primary process is they understand the stakes in the general election."
Earnest turned back to one of the White House's favorite subjects, Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 election, as an example of a contentious primary that resulted in Democratic Party unity.
"I also think President Obama benefits from his own personal involvement in the last hotly contested Democratic presidential primary," Earnest said. "Yes, the issues are a little different and the debates are always a little bit different, but no less intense."