Debbie Wasserman Schultz demanded Joe Biden attend her daughter's bat mitzvah

(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

published 28 July 2016

In the Jewish faith, a young woman's bat mitzvah is an important rite of passage, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. But in the realm of political party fundraising, well, attending a bat mitzvah is probably low on the list of priorities for a party's heavy-hitters.

However, Politico reports Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, thought differently when she was tasked with enlisting Vice President Joe Biden to help raise money for the Democratic Party:

Democratic National Committee staff had sent [Wasserman Schultz] to the vice president armed with four specific requests for getting him involved in raising money for the party.She decided to scrap them for two of her own.First, she asked Biden to do a fundraiser for her own reelection to her House seat in Florida in the primary challenge she's facing next month. He agreed.The second was to get down to Boca Raton for [her daughter's] bat mitzvah.Biden's staff balked. They offered to tape a video message from him instead, hoping that would satisfy her. [Politico]

Wasserman Schultz "eagerly" accepted the video offer, Politico says — but the out-of-turn request was just one more reflection of the chairwoman's reportedly increasingly disruptive leadership of the DNC. The Florida congresswoman was forced to resign from her post Sunday after a leak of internal emails revealed some party officials had attempted to influence the Democratic primary race against Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton's main rival for the presidential nomination. Read more about the DNC's internal chaos — including Wasserman Schultz's allegedly defiant response to criticism of her and her staffers on social media — at Politico.