DNC chair staying neutral after Sanders backed her opponent

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Saturday she will remain neutral in the presidential race despite Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders’s endorsement of her primary opponent.

{mosads}“Even though Senator Sanders has endorsed my opponent I remain, as I have been from the beginning, neutral in the Presidential Democratic primary,” Schultz said in a statement. “I look forward to working together with him for Democratic victories in the fall.”

Sanders, in a CNN interview to air Sunday, said he favors Wasserman Schultz’s primary opponent, Tim Canova.

Canova and Wasserman Schultz will face each other in Florida’s congressional primary Aug. 30. 

“Well, clearly, I favor her opponent,” Sanders told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz.”

Sanders’s comments come as tensions between him and party leaders escalate. Last weekend saw a chaotic state convention in Nevada in which Sanders supporters angrily opposed rules they thought unfairly benefited Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.