How Bernie Sanders' campaign manager turned the tables on the DNC

(Image credit: Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

published 29 December 2015

After being accused of stealing Hillary Clinton's private campaign data, Bernie Sanders' campaign managed to make it out of a sticky situation relatively unscathed thanks, in part, to the quick thinking of a former comic book store owner. Jeff Weaver — who is serving as Sanders' campaign manager while taking a break from selling issues of Hulk and Batman — threatened to sue the Democratic National Committee rather than apologize during a press conference, a move that The New York Times noted allowed Sanders' team to paint itself "as the victim of the Democratic establishment."

The aggressive maneuver struck many political observers as daring. It caught [Hillary] Clinton's campaign by surprise, which believed the basic facts of what had happened would speak for themselves. […] The campaign "won the day" after the data breach, [senior advisor Mark] Longabaugh said, because Mr. Weaver had made the right call. Mr. Weaver's allies suggested that he had an unflinching ability to detect a rival's weak spot, and pounce.Bill Clinton has privately told friends he was astonished by the Sanders' team's handling of the data breach, and that it risked depicting the Vermont senator as a typical politician and not the political outsider he is seen to be. [The New York Times]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.