The bullying of Bernie Sanders appears to be over, albeit temporary, with an agreement between the DNC and the Sanders campaign over restoration of his well-needed voter database. And in their statements, both sides claimed victory.
“The Democratic National Committee on Friday capitulated and agreed to reinstate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign’s access to a critically important voter database,” the Sanders campaign said in a statement.
“The Sanders campaign has now complied with the DNC’s request to provide the information that we have requested of them,” DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.
After four Sanders campaign staffers were accused on Thursday of inappropriately accessing Clinton campaign data, the DNC barred the Sanders from accessing its own all-important voter data. Seeking relief, the Sanders campaign filed a lawsuit to challenge the DNC and won back access shortly before midnight.
Sanders’ access to the data would be restored by Saturday morning, the campaign said. The Sanders campaign did not say whether it would drop a lawsuit it filed against the DNC for monetary relief: the campaign estimated it would lose $600,000 a day without access to its voter file and its fundraising tools.