The Democratic National Committee on Monday apologized to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for “inexcusable remarks made over email” regarding his presidential campaign.

An email hack and subsequent release of thousands of DNC emails published by WikiLeaks revealed bias against the Sanders campaign, with Democratic Party officials actively working to undermine his White House bid.


“On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email,” interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile wrote in a joint statement that included other top DNC officials.

Email chains included one DNC staffer questioning Sanders’ religion, contemplating whether to use it against him to win votes in upcoming primaries, and outgoing Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz calling Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver a “[d]amn liar.”

“These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process,” the statement said. “The DNC does not — and will not — tolerate disrespectful language exhibited toward our candidates. Individual staffers have also rightfully apologized for their comments, and the DNC is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.”

The statement came as the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon and offered a stark contrast of what Americans can expect to see over the next four days compared to what they saw last week at the GOP nominating convention.

“We are embarking on a convention today that — thanks to the great efforts of Secretary Clinton, her team, Senator Sanders, his team, and the entire Democratic Party — will show a forward-thinking and optimistic vision for America, as compared to the dark and pessimistic vision that the GOP presented last week in Cleveland,” the statement read. “Our focus is on electing Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine and Democrats across the country, thanks to [a] Democratic Party that is strong, unified, and poised for victory in November.”

Brazile told CNN that she was “personally shocked and embarrassed” by the email contents and “thought it was very important” to apologize personally on behalf of the party, although she had already done so on the air.

“This apology is not just to Bernie Sanders,” she added. “It is to donors. It is to anyone and everyone that clearly we offended.”

Brazile also pushed back at criticism that the party was slow to respond to warnings that it had been hacked and insisted that the DNC now has “a very terrific team of consultants, former federal cybersecurity experts, who are working with us make sure we have a very safe system.”

“I talked to the general counsel of the DNC today, and he assures me that every step along the way, when we were notified of these issues, that we changed systems, changed procedures,” she said. “But these hackers are so sophisticated that they changed procedures. So, yes, it went on for more than a year but at no time did we ignore the warnings from the FBI or any other federal officials.”