Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz Won't Open Party Convention

The embattled chair is set to step down at the end of the convention this week.

ByABC News
July 25, 2016, 1:45 PM

— -- Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz won’t open her party’s national convention in Philadelphia today, an official confirmed to ABC News.

The news comes one day after Wasserman Schultz announced she would step down from the post at the end of the convention, after the release of internal Democratic National Committee emails by WikiLeaks, which appear to show party officials strategizing how to aid Hillary Clinton and impede Sen. Bernie Sanders during the primaries. Wasserman Schultz was booed and jeered at a pre-convention Florida delegation breakfast this morning in Philadelphia.

Her decision to not bring the Democratic National Convention to session at the Wells Fargo Center today was first reported by The Sun Sentinel, which briefly spoke with the Florida congresswoman by phone.

“I have decided that, in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note, that I am not going to gavel in the convention,” she told the South Florida newspaper.

While her role at the convention this week may be reduced, Wasserman Schultz has made it clear that she does not intend to shy away from the campaign trail. She told the Florida delegation this morning that the public “will see me every day” between now and the election.

ABC News’ Rick Klein contributed to this report.

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