Canova: Wasserman Schultz ‘seeks to attack’ when pressed with truth

Tim Canova on Wednesday shot back at Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) after the congresswoman’s campaign said there was “no merit” to the Federal Election Commission complaint he filed against her.

{mosads}“Again, when pressed with the truth of her misconduct, Wasserman Schultz seeks to attack. This is an avoidance tactic worthy of Donald Trump, not a member of Congress with a sworn duty to uphold federal election laws,” Canova said in a statement.

“She doesn’t need a spokesperson, but rather a lawyer. Unfortunately, Wasserman Schultz is the one wasting constituents’ time and money. Last year, she had the 2nd highest absentee rate of the 27 members of Florida’s Congressional delegation. Instead, she spent her time engaged in shameful misconduct as chair of the DNC.”  

Earlier this week, Canova, Wasserman Schultz’s primary challenger, filed an FEC complaint against her alleging that the Florida representative “used her position with the DNC and the resources of the DNC to improperly benefit her congressional campaign.”

His complaint said “the DNC paid a team of national, senior communications and political professionals significant sums of money for their consulting services and the Wasserman Schultz for Congress Campaign utilized these services free of charge.”

A spokesman for Wasserman Schultz said there is “no merit to this complaint.”

“Once again, the Congresswoman’s opponent is wasting her constituents’ time with attacks based on stolen, cherry-picked information and continues to ignore the issues that actually matter to the people of the 23rd Congressional District,” said Ryan Banfill, a spokesman for Wasserman Schultz, in an email sent to FloridaPolitics late Monday night.

On Wednesday, Richard Bell, Canova’s chief of staff, said Wasserman Schultz’s team hasn’t denied or tried to explain its “actions that clearly show the DNC illegally contributing to the Wasserman Schultz re-election campaign.”

“Instead, she employs a spokesperson, Ryan Banfill, who is one of the key people at the heart of our FEC complaint – having served both the DNC and the Wasserman Schultz campaign and coordinated the activities of both organizations, while also acting as a consultant to predatory payday lenders, themselves key donors to her past campaigns,” he said in a statement.

“The Wikileaks disclosures reveal a pattern of Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying one thing while doing another. She has apparently learned nothing from her disgraceful downfall from the DNC,” Canova said.

Wasserman Schultz stepped down last month as the head of the DNC after a trove of emails were released by WikiLeaks that appeared to show top officials at the committee planning how to undermine Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.

Several other top officials have also stepped down since the emails were released.