MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell said Monday she had never seen anything like the chaotic scene at the Florida Democratic delegation breakfast where outgoing party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) was booed off the stage and escorted out by security.
Schultz was forced to yell her remarks Monday morning over jeers and shouting from angry Bernie Sanders supporters in the wake of the DNC email leak showing Democratic Party favoritism for Hillary Clinton. Schultz announced Sunday she would resign as party chair after this week’s convention, but she still tried to speak to her fellow Florida delegates, to no avail.
"She was booed off the stage," Mitchell said. "I’ve never seen anything like it. The chair of the Democratic Party, a congresswoman from Florida who has been enormously popular within her district and is facing re-election, was absolutely booed by protesting Bernie Sanders supporters right off of the stage. She had to break off her speech, trying to shout over them, finally gave up, and was escorted out by security. Pretty unprecedented, and it is only a hint of what would happen if she shows up on the podium, scheduled to gavel it down at 4:00 today."
Mitchell said there would be a lot of "soul-searching" between this morning and Schultz’s scheduled gaveling at the DNC as to whether or not her appearance should be canceled.
Anchor Stephanie Ruhle wondered, on a night that is supposed to be about party unity, why the Democrats would give her any role at all at this point. Mitchell said whatever would happen when and if Schultz appeared on the convention stage would be recycled on all primetime newscasts and flourish on social media.
"It is not tenable on a day they’re trying to project unity," Mitchell said.