When The DNC Attacks: Political Storm Writer Caught Up In WikiLeak Email Expose

This whole incident with Lucas and the DNC shows how truly polarized we are, even for an accomplished journalist just trying to get a quote.
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So how pervasive is this Democratic National Committee ("DNC") Wikileak thing? Well, even our start-up, Political Storm, is involved. It's a lot wider than a few emails about the Democratic Party trying to keep Bernie Sanders from the nomination. A lot of ugliness directed at other people was exposed as well and it speaks to the mindset of Democrat operatives.

What happened? Political Storm columnist, Fred Lucas, became part of the email scandal that engulfed the Democratic National Committee, as DNC officials slammed him as an "a--hole," with inner office banter about a creative way to tell him "f--k you."

Wikileaks exposed more than 20,000 emails on Friday and the headline was about how unfair the DNC treated Bernie Sanders. They weren't much friendlier to Lucas either, who reached out to the DNC for comment on a story he was reporting for Fox News regarding the 2016 election.

The story was about Donald Trump's claim that Hillary Clinton was an "enabler" for her husband's treatment of women. Wikileaks shows the crass deliberation about whether to respond.

Lucas called the DNC press office, which asked him to email an inquiry instead. He wrote, "I hoped the DNC could weigh in on the appropriateness of Trump attacking along these lines." Then closed, "... I would really appreciate any response you have. Thanks very much."

DNC communications director Luis Miranda asked his colleagues, "Is there a F--k You emoji?"

DNC national press secretary Mark Paustenbach asserted to colleagues, "We're not responding at all."

Lucas sent a second inquiry and DNC press aide Rachel Palermo, wrote to colleagues, "The a--hole from fox emailed us again. I did some research and there's still no 'f--k you' emoji, unfortunately."

Obviously, this drew some attention on our end -- The Intercept, The Blaze, Mediaite and other outlets.

We started Political Storm with the objective of getting people out of their respective partisan echo chambers and into a forum for conversation on all issues, from all sides. This instance shows just how divided we truly are. Our site is a bridge across a very divided America.

This whole incident with Lucas and the DNC shows how truly polarized we are, even for an accomplished journalist just trying to get a quote.

In fact, Democratic Senator Cory Booker's electrifying speech on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention echoed those same sentiments. It's too bad that the Democrat Party elite don't feel the same way.

Despite the knee-jerk apologies from the offending staffers and the perfunctory "resignation" of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, it appears that the DNC has strayed far from the ideals of bipartisan civility or the stirring words of Booker.

But, of course, the Sanders faithful completely understand our frustration, don't they?

Jon Saltzman is the Co-founder and Publisher of Political Storm.

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