Demonstrators make their way around downtown, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Philadelphia, during the first day of the Democratic National Convention. | AP Photo Day One: Mayhem breaks out at Democratic convention Under fire, Wasserman Schultz backs out of convention role, as Sanders supporters boo the senator for his call to back Clinton.

Democrats on Monday struggled to contain the chaos that threatened to take hold in Philadelphia, as Debbie Wasserman Schultz bowed out of plans to gavel in the Democratic National Convention and restless Bernie Sanders’ supporters lashed out.

A day after the resignation of the embattled party chairwoman over a massive leak of emails showing disdain for Sanders' campaign, the party could not escape the optics of a convention marred by discord, much like the Republicans' the week before. And once again, Hillary Clinton has found herself ensnared in another email-related controversy.


Trouble started early Monday, when Wasserman Schultz's debut at the convention proved disastrous. The Florida congresswoman as was heckled as she tried to speak before the Florida delegation breakfast, with some in the room yelling "Shame!"

"So I can see that's little bit of interest in my being here and I appreciate that interest," Wasserman Schultz said amid the cacophony. "And a little bit of interest from the press but that really shows you that Florida is the most significant battleground state that will make sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States of America. We are the state that will deliver the White House to make sure that we can continue to make the progress that we have been able to make under Barack Obama for the last eight years."

By Monday afternoon, as concerns grew about Wasserman Schultz also being jeered on stage, the outgoing DNC chair said she would step aside.

"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," Wasserman Schultz told the Sun Sentinel.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore and secretary of the DNC, gaveled in the convention at 4 p.m. instead.

There were also signs that Sanders’ supporters will not be accepting Clinton’s nomination quietly — and that Sanders’ camp was not actively trying to shut down some disturbances.

Before news hit that Wasserman Schultz would bow out of the night’s festivities, Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said his team “would certainly encourage people to be respectful” but that he couldn’t guarantee what they would do.

“But I have to tell you, it may be a very difficult situation, Andrea, given the emails that we’ve seen and given the conduct over the course of the campaign,” Weaver explained on MSNBC. “I think there is a lot of justifiable upset about the way things were handled at the DNC. So we would certainly encourage people to be respectful, but I certainly cannot guarantee how our people will respond.”

Sanders himself provoked outrage from his supporters on Monday after he declared that the time has come for them to elect Clinton and vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.

"Immediately right now, we have got to defeat Donald Trump. And we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine," Sanders said at the Philadelphia rally, drawing boos and subsequent chants of "we want Bernie."

By early afternoon, Sanders allies were openly discussing plans to challenge Clinton's selection of Tim Kaine as her running mate.

“There’s serious interest right now and exploration as we speak of a formal challenge,” Norman Solomon, a California delegate and national coordinator for the Bernie Delegates Network, said at a news conference Monday. A formal challenge would feed Republican glee over the Democrats' rocky first day. Though restive delegates at last week's Republican National Convention had chattered about trying to hijack Trump's vice presidential selection, no formal effort materialized.

But it was the fallout from the DNC hack that dominated the conversation on Monday, as Democrats strained to present an image of unity.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta appeared on MSNBC and declared that Wasserman Schultz did what "she needed to do by resigning."

"She helped re-elect President Obama and she made the choice that she wanted — under the rules, she has the right to open the party, open the convention. She’s going to do that," Podesta told "Morning Joe.”

"It's best for Hillary Clinton that we have a new chair of the party. We'll have that with Donna Brazile, and we're looking forward to that," Podesta said, referring to the party's new interim chairwoman. He added of Wasserman Schultz, "I'm not going to jump on her more."

Co-host Mika Brzezinski interjected, "Let me translate for you: That's a yes. That's his yes."

Clinton's campaign insisted Monday that Sanders would "double down" on his endorsement of Clinton weeks ago in New Hampshire, "in contrast to Ted Cruz," who caused an uproar in Cleveland by telling Americans to "vote your conscience" rather than explicitly endorsing Trump.

"I'm going to leave it to Sen. Sanders to talk about how he goes through the process of drafting that speech," campaign manager Robby Mook said. "But we're excited. We think it's going to be a great way to close out the evening."

Donald Trump, meanwhile, reveled in what he called a "total meltdown" by the Democratic Party, mocking the party's "rigged system" as well as Sanders for not pulling his endorsement of Clinton.

"Well, as you know, Mr. Trump makes statements at times that are not accurate," Brazile told reporters Monday morning. "The truth is that the Democratic Party, we have a very open process."

"If Bernie Sanders, after seeing the just released e-mails, continues to look exhausted and done, then his legacy will never be the same," Trump tweeted Monday.

Former DNC Chairman Ed Rendell took a more direct route in calling for Wasserman Schultz to avoid showing her face in Philadelphia "for her own good."

"Because it's going to be messy when she gets up there," Rendell told MSNBC.

Tim Canova, who is giving Wasserman Schultz her first primary challenge in 24 years, told "Fox & Friends" that while he was "relieved" to see the news of her resignation, he was "disappointed" to see that she had subsequently been named as an honorary chair of Clinton's campaign.

"First of all, she's been such a disappointing chair of the DNC that one wonders whether if she would be effective," Canova remarked, adding that Wasserman Schultz "should not be rewarded in any way."

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also piled on, telling Fox News that Wasserman Schultz's new role "emphasizes the fact that she was in the tank the whole time anyway."

"But the DNC was in the tank and the whole thing was a fraud," Priebus continued. "But it's also probably a made-up position that people do when folks transition out of embarrassing situations."

Priebus also suggested that Sanders should change the contents of his speech Monday night in light of the email revelations.

"Because otherwise you're just laying down, otherwise you're just a puppy dog for the party. And I don't think he's a puppy dog," the RNC chairman said.

But as far as Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver is concerned, the party is united and Sanders is still backing Clinton, despite the emails confirming what the Vermont senator's team said it "knew" was taking place within the DNC.

"I think for everybody else in the world, this was really sort of bringing it out in black and white. But look, this happened. We knew it happened then," Weaver told CNN's "New Day." "Now is the time to go forward. The thing to do now is elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump. That's what we have to do."

Wasserman Schultz "did the right thing" by resigning, Weaver continued, adding, "I think now is the time for party unity."

"I think she put the party ahead of herself. She stepped back. I think we're going to have a chance to turn the page," Weaver said. "We're going to have new leadership there. I think we're going to have a new direction in the party. I think we'll be really ready to fight in the fall."

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a longtime Clinton supporter who was seen as under consideration for her running mate, also suggested Wasserman Schultz's move was a play for unity.

"I think that the reason why she resigned was to try to take [concerns about a lack of unity] off the table and I think that she is gonna do the right thing by the party," Booker told NBC's "Today," remarking, "I really believe that she’s not trying to be a point of division. So I think how those details work out, they’ll work out in a way that benefits our party unity."

For Podesta on MSNBC, that meant talking up Monday night's star-studded speaker lineup.

"Look, you guys can spend all morning talking about Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Tonight, you'll be talking about Michelle Obama, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren," Podesta said. "I think we’re going to have a great, unified convention."

Podesta also gave assurances that Sanders’ address would not be a Democratic redux of Ted Cruz’s defiant speech last week in Cleveland.

“We already saw what he's going to say when he stood with her in New Hampshire, endorsed her, was full-throated, said this is a campaign that he wants to be involved with,” Podesta said. “He wants to do everything he can to elect her over Donald Trump. That's what we're going to get tonight. He'll have a big audience to do it, and that's good for us.”