Bernie Sanders supporters Friday tore into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on social media after a leaked email appeared to show a DNC official plotting to question Sanders’s religion.
The email, written by Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall and leaked by the DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 to WikiLeaks, suggests sending a surrogate to ask an unnamed candidate whether that candidate believed in God.
{mosads}The email does not name the Vermont senator, but it talks about a man of “Jewish heritage” Marshall believes to be an atheist. It makes reference to voters in Kentucky and West Virginia, two states that were weeks away from a Democratic primary at the time.
“It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist,” said the email, to other party officials in its entirety.
Marshall did not respond to a request for comment. But he did tell The Intercept, which first noticed the email, “I do not recall this. I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate.”
The leaked email prompted swift outcry online Friday afternoon. One apparent Sanders supporter tweeted: “HRC folks called Sanders “McCarthyite” & ranted about purity while DNC plotted to smear him as godless commie Jew.”