Bernie
Sanders' presidential campaign manager on Friday said the Democratic
National Committee had in effect given the campaign the "death penalty"
by revoking access to its voter database in the wake of a DNC database
breach.
Meanwhile, a spokesman
for Hillary Clinton's campaign -- whose data was the target of the
breach -- said Sanders' campaign workers went "hog wild" in accessing
and downloading sensitive material.
The
dramatic charges and counter-charges flew during a lively interview
with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" shortly after Sanders
filed a lawsuit against the DNC to restore the campaign's access to the
data. The DNC cut off Sanders from the database and said the Vermont
senator's presidential campaign exploited a software error to improperly
access confidential voter information collected by Clinton's team.
"The
failings of one or three or four young people who have made
misjudgments in a campaign is not cause for them to issue a death
penalty on the Sanders campaign," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver
told Blitzer.
He called the DNC's decision "unprecedented."
"The
DNC has taken away our access to our data," Weaver said. "This is data
collected by Sanders, volunteers and staffers about voters in Iowa, New
Hampshire and other places. We cannot run this campaign without this
data. They are attempting to cripple our campaign and we're not going to
stand for it."
Weaver also accused the
DNC of holding debates on Saturdays to "bury" them in an effort to
protect Clinton's advantage in the Democratic field.
Midway
through the interview, Blitzer took a call from Brian Fallon, a
spokesman for Clinton's campaign, who called the Sanders campaign's
moves "an act of theft."
Earlier
Friday, Fallon and campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in a
conference call that the breach contrasts with the "different kind of
campaign" that Sanders had pledged to run.
On
CNN, Fallon said, "(Sanders) said he wasn't going to run negative ads.
Now he's got his field organizers and data analysts stealing in an act
of theft, stealing from the Clinton campaign."
"They
were like kids in a candy store," Fallon added. "They had about 40
minutes where they ran wild. They went hog wild downloading as much data
(as they could) in about 25 minutes."
Fallon added: "I really view this lawsuit as a distraction, and actually as an outright act of chutzpah."
Asked what Clinton would like Sanders to do, Fallon encouraged him to "Come clean. Admit wrongdoing. Let's move on."
