Earlier this week, NBC news obtained documents that showed staffers for Sanders obtained access to sensitive information from Hillary Clinton's camp during a software glitch with the party's critical voter file-- a master list of information essential to get-out-the-vote efforts. The DNC responded to the data breach by denying the Sanders campaign any access to the voter database-- including their own data. In return, the Sanders camp filed a federal lawsuit against the DNC accusing party leaders of actively trying to sabotage the Sanders campaign in order to help Hillary Clinton. After a rough 24 hours, the Sanders campaign and the DNC reached a resolution on Friday night. But while the immediate crisis is over, questions remain: will this controversy have lingering effects on the primaries and general elections and for whom? Our political panel will discuss this and more.
In the second hour we’ll turn to the GOP. We are just six weeks away from the first votes being cast in the 2016 presidential race at the Iowa caucuses. And Donald Trump continues to lead the national polling for the GOP primary. Trump’s dominance has pollsters and political analysts alike asking: who are his supporters and will they show up at the polls? We’ll discuss the role race and identity politics could be playing in the 2015 Republican campaign season. Panelists include:
- Basil Smikle, Jr., executive director, NYS Democratic Party
- Daisy Hernández, assistant professor, English Department Miami University
- Brittney Cooper, assistant professor of Africana Studies, Rutgers University
- Whitney Dow, director/producer of “Whiteness Project”
- Robert Jones, CEO, Public Religion Research Institute
For additional context, check out the links below:
- Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust
- The rise of Neo-Nativism: Putting Trump into Proper Context
- Will Donald Trump’s Supporters Show Up at the Polls?
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