Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

Martin O’Malley kept his feud with the Democratic National Committee alive on Monday night, blaming his flagging presidential campaign squarely on an “undemocratic” debate schedule.

The former Maryland governor at the Iowa Brown and Black Forum criticized party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and simply responded “Yes” when asked whether the DNC was the reason he’s been unable to gain traction. The audience broke into 10 seconds of applause.

“I don’t make the rules,” he said. “The rules are made by other people. The DNC chair. We’ve never had such an undemocratic debate schedule as we have this year in the Democratic Party. And then to add insult to injury, they schedule these debates on Saturday nights when as few people will see them as possible.”

Brown and Black Forum mixes blunt questions, lighter fare

The former Baltimore mayor also discussed criticism of the “zero tolerance” policing strategy he introduced there. Some argue it created a disconnect between police and poor minority residents. O’Malley defended his years as mayor, arguing he helped decrease police shootings to three of their lowest years while boosting spending on drug treatment.

“When I ran for mayor of Baltimore in 1999, there was already a deep, deep distrust between the community and between the police,” he said. “That predated my service as mayor, probably about 250 years. So I had to work to heal that wound.”

QUOTE: “In our country we have seen such a wealth and power in the hands of the few, and that same concentration of wealth and power has also happened in the Democratic Party.”

BEST MOMENT: Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos asked whether O’Malley thought Hillary Clinton would continue the Obama administration’s deportation policies if she were elected president. “Well she’s not going to win the election,” O’Malley said. “I am.”

AUDIENCE REACTION: O’Malley got applause from the audience for his stance against sending children fleeing Central American countries back home. “We should never be sending women and children back to death gangs,” he said.

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