PHILADELPHIA _ Mayhem exploded against U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday morning when she made her first public appearance after being forced out as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
"Shame!" yelled protesters enraged at the Florida congresswoman over leaked Democratic Party emails that suggested her staff favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the presidential primary. They held signs that read, simply, "EMAILS."
Wasserman Schultz might have expected a warm embrace at the breakfast of the Florida delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Instead, she found herself hardly able to speak over the boos.
It was exactly the embarrassing display of disunity Democratic leaders hoped to avoid by removing her from the convention speaking program Saturday. On Sunday, she said she would resign from her chair post by the end of the convention, on Thursday.
That didn't satisfy some Sanders supporters, who want her gone now.
Wasserman Schultz said Sunday she intends to open and close the convention _ a symbolic, bang-the-gavel moment for the event she spent more than a year organizing. Monday's pandemonium might only be a preview of more jeering to come.
Surrounded by police officers, reporters and the pulsating crowd, Wasserman Schultz plowed through, raising her voice behind the microphone to try to be heard over the din. She started off with a few words about an overnight shooting at a Fort Myers, Fla., nightclub.
"People lost their lives _ " she began.
Even then, the protesters continued chanting. Many wore Sanders campaign garb.
"She rigged the election," said 39-year-old Sanjay Patel of Satellite Beach in Brevard County. "She's still here; it bothers me so much."
When Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant stepped in, asking the angry mob to let Wasserman Schultz speak, someone yelled back, "We didn't have our voices heard!" Wasserman Schultz carried on, defending her five-year party tenure.
Her Broward County supporters had piled into the ballroom at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, wearing white "Re-elect Debbie Wasserman Schultz" T-shirts. But while they and other Wasserman Schultz fans attempted to drown out the hecklers with applause and cries of "Deb-bie!" they were largely unsuccessful.
"They're not real Democrats," state Sen. Eleanor Sobel of Hollywood said of the protesters. "They were rude, disruptive and obnoxious. They should have stopped screaming and let her speak.
"I think the Bernie people can't get over that they lost. They're sore losers, so they're picking on Debbie," said Sobel, a Clinton supporter. "Go back to Play-Doh."
Wasserman Schultz concluded her short remarks on a defiant note.
"You will see me every day on the campaign trail," she said.
Security guards escorted her off stage as people swarmed around her.
"Na na na na, hey hey hey, good-bye," protesters sang.
