WASHINGTON ��Bernie Sanders called on Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign Sunday after leaks of emails showed that committee staffers helped Hillary Clinton during the primary campaigns.
"She should resign, period," Sanders said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "We need a new chair that is going to lead us in a different direction."
The Vermont senator reiterated his support for Clinton and opposition to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. His comments came after Trump made explicit pitches for Sanders' supporters last week in his acceptance speech in Cleveland and again over the weekend after the Wikileaks email release.
"To my mind what is most important now is defeating the worst candidate I have seen in my lifetime, Donald Trump," Sanders said.
"Most of my supporters understand that Trump has got to be defeated," said Sanders, citing Trump's opposition to raising the minimum wage, his plans to cut taxes for the rich and reverse health care reforms, his lack of belief in climate change and his attacks on various groups including Mexicans and women.
Sanders, whose primary battle with Clinton stretched into June, appeared on three Sunday political shows and will address the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday night.
Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that "experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, and other experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump."
The Republican nominee's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., responded later in the CNN program that Mook's remarks were "disgusting" and "phony," and accused him of lying. Clinton's campaign will "say anything to be able to win this," he said.
Sanders's anger at the DNC is undiminished.
"I told you a long time ago that the DNC was not running a fair operation, that they were supporting Secretary Clinton," Sanders said on ABC. "So what I suggested to be true six months ago turns out, in fact, to be true. I'm not shocked. But I am disappointed."
Sanders has endorsed Tim Canova, a progressive who is opposing Wasserman Schultz for her House seat in Florida's Democratic Aug. 30 primary.
Donna Brazile, a vice chair of the DNC, said later on the program she had apologized to the Sanders campaign on Saturday.
"The allegations, the emails, the insensitivity, the stupidity, needs to be addressed, and it will be addressed," she said.
She also predicted that more emails will be leaked and some people will have to go. "Will some people have to step down, be removed, resign?" she said. "I'm sure at the end of the day, yes."
